


chaos theory

by Amorelastico



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Awesome Bulma Briefs, F/M, also characters aggressively in canon ie disgrace, an aggressive amount of mentions of jaco the galactic patrolman, everyone is their worst possible self, i just threw some porn in it, i kind of ship anything in dragon ball i'm very basic, lots of swearing, this is a character study, who am I trying to fool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2020-11-28 01:38:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20958320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amorelastico/pseuds/Amorelastico
Summary: Bulma Briefs is not very good with people, and even worse with romantic relationships. But she tries, with varying degrees of success, and even succeeds in winning a few hearts in the process.Or, alternatively, the loves of Bulma Briefs.Series of chapters that can be read individually but together form a narrative about Bulma's relationships throughout Dragon Ball. - YamchaxBulma, and eventually VegeBul;





	1. bold and selfish, cuteness is justice

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Atrevida](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18373865) by [Amorelastico](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amorelastico/pseuds/Amorelastico). 

> hello random reader that decided to read this. I am translating this fic from portuguese to english, and english is not my native language, so if you find any mistake of don't think any sentence is quite right, let me know, since this is kind of a experimentation
> 
> so, I'll make it clear right away that I find myself very entertaining, and I thought it would be a great idea to spend a good chunk of this fanfic exploring the dynamics of the trainwreck of a couple that Bulma and Yamcha were. Actually the initial idea was that this fic was just about their relationship, but I decided that I really liked her relationship with Vegeta to not write about them. Anyway, what I mean is that there will be a lot of YamBul in this beginning, with a bit of pornography, fights, references to Taylor Swift songs, revolting moments, cute moments and a LOT of references to the classic Dragon Ball. Be warned.
> 
> To those who had the courage to continue reading after this warning (I know you should HATE with all your heart YamchaxBulma, and possibly even Yamcha who is like easily top5 best boys of Dragon Ball), good read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello random reader that decided to read this. I am translating this fic from portuguese to english, and english is not my native language, so if you find any mistake of don't think any sentence is quite right, let me know, since this is kind of a experimentation
> 
> so, I'll make it clear right away that I find myself very entertaining, and I thought it would be a great idea to spend a good chunk of this fanfic exploring the dynamics of the trainwreck of a couple that Bulma and Yamcha were. Actually the initial idea was that this fic was just about their relationship, but I decided that I liked her relationship with Vegeta top much to not write about them. Anyway, what I mean is that there will be a lot of YamBul in this beginning, with a bit of pornography, fights, references to Taylor Swift songs, revolting moments, cute moments and a LOT of references to the classic Dragon Ball. Be warned.
> 
> To those who had the courage to continue reading after this warning (I know you all probably HATE YamchaxBulma with all your heart, and possibly even Yamcha who is like easily top5 best boys of Dragon Ball), good read.

Bulma knew that she and Yamcha were not a typical couple. When they met, everything had flowed naturally so that they could be together. She wanted a boyfriend, he wanted to lose his fear of girls, and they both wanted to have sex, but neither had had any relationship with the opposite sex. It was strange, it was new, and Bulma was delighted with everything at first, and in a way she felt honored to have been chosen by him to be the girl who would help him overcome his fear of girls.

She wanted to show the world that, despite everything, she found someone who was cool, handsome and who wasn't with her because of her money. That someone actually liked her, that wasn't intimidated by everything she was. Because honestly, she was quite a lot.

So when Bulma returned to school for her sophomore year, she soon managed to brag about her new boyfriend, so that the girl she didn't like and the guy who rejected Bulma's 'love' confession and injured her ego could hear.

"This is my new boyfriend, Yamcha. Isn't he handsome?" Bulma shows his picture to the prying eyes of the girls in her class, with a victorious grin she can't contain, and everyone in the room agrees he's something to see. "He's hot too. And good in bed."

The girls burst into giggles, oblivious to the fact that Bulma had no way of knowing if he was good in bed, since they hadn't even had sex yet. In fact, they hadn't even kissed much because Yamcha freaks out a bit when things start to get more intense. Even though she wanted to overcome this situation as soon as possible, Yamcha had first to overcome his fear of girls first, especially of his girlfriend.

But the blue-haired girl spoke so confidently that she could tell she had lost her virginity on her fifteenth birthday to an intergalactic prince everyone in the room would believe her.

But when it finally happened, their first time was disastrous, as expected of a boy who couldn't even kiss properly, and a girl who had no idea of even the basics of interpersonal relationships. She couldn't help but feel flustered and embarrassed, but she had decided that at this point, they had gone too far to return.

But they stayed together, and it didn't take long for sex to dramatically improve. In fact, Bulma was surprised at how good that could be, and she thought she understood some of why people risked so much just for a little pleasure, besides the lack of good sense.

Bulma was happy and pleased. She had found someone who really liked her, and it hadn't even been through a magical request for a dragon. What could go wrong? A lot of things, apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to tell why I decided to translate this fic. I started to post this fic here in ao3 a few months ago in portuguese, and, strangely, someone was using a translator to read it in some other language. I was very intrigued, so I put a part of a chapter in translate google and I discovered that the translation wasn't half bad, so I decided to put the fanfiction in the translator and fix what I thought was not very good. Honestly, I had thought of translating, but I didn't want to write everything in english, so I took the easy way out lol. but everyone, tell me what you think


	2. sweet and sour candy pop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice: In this chapter there are sex scenes (not so explicit). I also want to warn you that this fanfic only follows the canonicality of manga events (although I reuse some of the anime ideas that I liked even though I haven't watched it lol), and even with manga events I give a twist or so because this is a work-based fiction work of fiction lol.
> 
> Anyway, that's it, and good reading.

Bulma quickly realizes that keeping a relationship alive is a lot harder than starting one, and after less than a year of dating, Yamcha goes out to train and spends almost two months without contacting her, and when they meet again, Bulma freaks out, saying that she has had enough. This is the first time in many comings and goings.

It was kind of lonely spending those months without him, and she was already in the beginning of her third year of high school when Goku came to her house to ask her to help him on a new adventure. But the adventure with Goku eventually escalated to something worse (as it always does, apparently), and they had to call Yamcha to help do something against the Red Ribbon.

At the end of what seemed like a week in less than three days, Goku got the dragon balls he wanted, resurrected a guy, and when Bulma was alone with Yamcha and he said he missed her, and she melted right away and said they could come back together. He would train with Master Roshi, but ensured that the two would continue to meet and that he would make an effort to contact her.

This time around their relationship was more calm, and now she was thinking they were behaving like a real couple, finally. They were going out for walks in the park, had romantic dates at the town's cinema, and once she even took him to see the Aurora Borealis, among the glaciers and penguins, and she saw him flushing from both cold and embarrassment at being with her there.

One night Bulma's parents went to an important event for multinational entrepreneurs, and would spend the weekend away. Obviously they didn't let this opportunity pass, and soon tried to do what they shouldn't.

Early the first night they stole one of her father's liquors, got drunk faster than they could even process, and danced in the kitchen laughing, and started kissing. He kisses her neck as she rubs him, and an almost uncontrollable urge takes over her body, she soon wants to be touched in the place that makes her eyes roll with pleasure.

Soon she takes off his shirt, he takes her breast with one hand and inside her panties with the other, and when she realizes, she is already being thrown on the living room couch with her legs open so that he can penetrate her easily, and that's what he does while she moans openly with pleasure.

They fuck shamelessly in the living room, and as she rides him, the more their breathing gets more ragged, and when she gets there with his dick in her pussy, she sees stars and lets out a sound that's not quite a scream nor a moan. The feeling is so powerful she doesn't want it to ever stop as she shivers and grabs his hair when he keeps thrusting into her, and when he comes inside of her, it's so hot it hurts.

After that, breathing heavily beside Yamcha, and completely naked, Bulma could only think, "I think this time things will work out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it. The chapters will get longer over time, the fanfic will be changing it's shape and over time it gets where I want. Thank you for reading xo.
> 
> PS: Any criticism you can tell me in the comments, if you are not liking the writing, english errors, comments, if the fic is not clear, just tell me and I will try to improve.


	3. you were looking at me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kind of a cute chapter so have fun!

All things must come to an end, and they start to fall apart as quickly as they had come back together, and so Bulma’s feelings start to change, from a sadness that turns into a bubbling anger, and Yamcha’s feelings change as wall, from a lack of commitment that turns into resentment, their relationship crumbles and collapses once again, with her screaming that she hates him. A week later Yamcha calls her, and she's like "I love you". She honestly can’t get a hold of her own feelings.

A year and a half goes on with a certain amount of stability, but they are always going round and round, until Yamcha say he has to train for another Martial Arts Tournament, and they have a really ugly argument, in which she says he doesn't like her enough, and he accuses her of not wanting to see him succeed, and so they end up again, and he will train with Puar anyway.

When she arrives at Number One Below the Sky Tournament accompanied by Launch, Master Roshi and Oolong, she sees Yamcha, and is unsure what to do, since they haven't seen each other in months, and they were on bad terms when he left. Then, in Yamcha's fight against a three-eyed bald man named Tien Shinhan, Yamcha has his leg broken violently by his opponent, and Bulma gets more anguished than she would like, and rushes to accompany him along with Puar to the nearest hospital.

At the hospital, Yamcha was sedated and underwent simple restorative surgery, and they put a plaster boot on his leg, and the doctor says they had to put pins in his leg. Bulma goes through the whole process following him closely, along with Puar, with a heartache she can’t explain. When he finally wakes up, the shape-shifting cat gives Yamcha a tight hug, and when the hug ends, Yamcha looks at her, and tears fall from his eyes. She understands him, the frustration, the broken leg, their troubled relationship, and Bulma starts crying too, saying nothing. It was already dusk, and she was looking at him like it was the first time she had ever seen him.

That night they both slept in the hospital, Bulma sitting in the visitor's chair with Puar on her lap, because she had not had the courage to leave Yamcha there accompanied only by Puar. When the morning came and Bulma felt the sun on her face, she opened her eyes and realized that Yamcha was looking at her, and no one else.

"I miss you." Bulma says, some time later, when Puar leaves the room. She and Yamcha are only inches away, him lying on the hospital bed, with her sitting in the chair beside him. "I'm just feel so lonely all the time. It's funny, since I have everything, and there are so many people working for me that I don't even know how to start counting. Honestly, you know that the administrative part of Capsule Corp was never my thing, and if I had the chance I would never leave my lab."

The two then burst out laughing, but deep down she knows that Yamcha understands that she is a lonely creature despite being surrounded by people. It's hard to trust people, at least for her. No one sees her as Bulma, the nineteen-year-old who likes strawberries, multiverse theories, hot tub baths, and tales about her older sister's space travels. She is seen as Bulma Briefs, heiress of the world's largest company, a prominent in her field of expertise, holding countless awards for bright young people and a billionaire. But Yamcha knows who she is underneath everything, and likes her anyway. Or that's what she expects.

"But I want you to be close to me, you know?" She means it, and honestly, she thinks he wouldn't want anything from her.

"As crazy as it sounds, I want to be around you too." He says as he scratches his head with a little embarrassment, and really catches her off guard.

But no more words are needed, and Bulma just leans over and captures his lips in an passionate kiss.


	4. I like him, still

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to say that I love all the couples of the classic Dragon Ball, although it didn't work out for most of them lol.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Once again Bulma and Yamcha had returned back to normal, but it was becoming increasingly clear that something was .... Missing. She wasn't sure what to talk about with him, and it seemed that they were both heading for different things. Yamcha was focused on his training as a martial artist, and was increasingly popular with the ladies, very different from the shy boy she met years ago, and she was very focused on her work in Capsule Corp. They somehow managed to spend a few years together with just a few ugly arguments, but something is a a bit off, and they see each other less and less, and less and less they want to see each other.

They break up again basically because he wanted to train and she was kind of fed up with all this shit, and this breaking-up-and-getting-back-together thing they had was getting old very fast. Bulma felt emotionally drained, and she is starting to think their relationship may be doomed, as much as she does not want to admit it.

Time goes by, and Bulma is so busy working as a scientist and learning to navigate as an entrepreneur and manager of the Capsule Corp that when she realizes, Budokai Tenkaichi has arrived. When she gets there with Oolong and Puar in tow (her relationship with Yamcha could be complicated, but she really loves the pseudo-kitten) and sees how Goku is, well, hot now, the rational part of her brain, which she would remember that hey, you've bathed this boy in a non-sexual way and it would be kind of weird to have sex with him, just goes off and she thinks it wouldn't be bad to be with him, especially after almost a year without sex. But that possibility goes down the drain frighteningly fast, and within hours Goku is already married to warrior princess Chichi.

The Tournament obviously becomes a mess, as it often seems to happen when everyone gathers, and Piccolo, the evil demon who should have died three years ago, finally loses, Goku finally wins the Tournament and becomes Number One Below the Heavens (the third time is the charm). Almost immediately afterwards Goku marries Chichi at their nearest registry office, and by night everyone is getting drunk in celebration of Goku’s victory and marriage on Master Roshi's island. Bulma decided not to comment, but this had literally been the fastest wedding ceremony she had ever seen. But she really wishes them both luck, because she knows they will need it.

Between one crappy beer and another, she looks at Yamcha and ah, he's looking really hot with these scars on his face. She has an undeniable weakness for bad boys, and the scars on his face give him a sexier look. She hadn't been with anyone since they broke up either, so before Bulma realizes, she's already sitting on his lap, kissing him, and between a sip of her beer and the hot kisses she's already losing her sense of decency.

"I will bang you so hard that neither of us will be able to walk straight tomorrow." Bulma whispers, trying to be seductive and ending up feeling ashamed of herself, but to hell with good sense. She drags him into one of the rooms of the house, and the rest of the people are so wasted that not even the perverts realized they were slipping away.

They climb the stairs of the house between kisses, and he had his hand inside her panties as she threw her head back, and they had to find some room fast, or else she would come right there in the hallway, being fucked by his fingers, trying to hold back moans and tugging at his hair while kissing his neck.

When they open the first door that appears in front of them, they come across Launch (the evil version) and Tien Shinhan fucking, and before Bulma can have any reaction, Yamcha slams the door shut. They stare at each other for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. What an awful sight, and they could hear the sounds outside the room.

Bulma kisses him again, trying to forget the scene from a few seconds ago, and failing while listening to the rhythmic noise of the bed inside the room. The next room they find this time is empty, thankfully.

She really missed it, Bulma thinks as she penetrates from behind and rolls her eyes at how good this is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapters are starting to get bigger, and that was the last chapter on the classic Dragon Ball, and the next two chapters are set in the period between the classic and the Z.
> 
> Anyway, if you liked it I would appreciate it if you gave kudos and commented, it really helps me to try and improve each chapter!


	5. thank you, next (but I aways come back to you)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back by popular demand! just kidding, nobody demanded anything. it's being a very different experience for me writing in english, and i am enjoying it more than i thought i would.
> 
> so, people had many... feelings about this fic. i get why many people won't like it because it's a very different proposal, and i wanted to be very honest with the characters i'm writing, you know? i said with every word that this fic is about, and i quote "a narrative about Bulma's relationships throughout Dragon Ball", so yeah, she bangs more than one man. sorry about that
> 
> but back to the fic, i totally forgot to say that i use the non reliable narrator technique, which means that some things bulma says or thinks may be just her opinion, and not an actual fact

They try again, because Bulma doesn't really know when to stop. Yamcha decides to start a career as a baseball player to earn some money, and he's so good at it because of his martial arts training that in a year he's already really famous in the field. It doesn't take long before the general public connected the dots that the heiress and chief scientist of the world's largest company is dating the rising baseball star, and occasionally they are followed by paparazzi, to Bulma's irritation. Despite being a billionaire, the paparazzi really only took pictures of her at important corporate events or scientific awards, so it was a new feeling, and she didn’t like it one bit.

At that point it seems that all he does is to piss her off and to start fights with her, and they drift away again in the usual way. When they break up she doesn't even get as angry as she used to, until one day she sees Yamcha on a gossip magazine cover, which said he was spotted on a date with a rising actress, and Bulma sees fucking red. She returns home furious that day, grabbing one of the whiskeys from her collection, and as she drinks generous sips straight from the bottleneck, she decides that today would be a good day to accept the invitation of the staff of Capsule Corp to go out for a drink in some fancy club.

As she gets ready, she starts to murmur, "that son of a _bitch_, how DARE he to pass me behind like that," even though she knew that from a logical point of view he had done nothing wrong. But a part of her was waiting for them to get back together after all that mess, because that’s what they _do_. Bulma calls her colleagues to confirm that she is going to the party with them, and puts on a new dress, a boot and a nice make-up. She was ready to go fucking crazy tonight.

By the time she arrived at the venue and found her colleagues from Capsule Corp, she was already a little drunk, and as she sat down to talk to them, shouting to be properly understood because of the loud music, she immediately asked for a Mojito to drink. After drinking three glasses, Bulma decides that she is already feeling loose enough to dance, so she goes to the dance floor, and her body moves instinctively to the beat, though she has never been fond of dancing, she was having more fun than she expected with that. It was good to forget a little about Yamcha, even if deep down she wanted to be dancing with him. Damn, why couldn't she get him out of her head? And so she drinks another glass. Her head was spinning a little. Maybe she should stay with someone to forget about him. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

The next morning Bulma wakes up naked in a stranger's bed, and with a killer hangover. Argh, maybe last night was a mistake. She gets up quietly and puts on her dress - well, she understands why someone wanted to sleep with her, she looked _hot_ in that dress, but fuck, she just wanted to go home and take a shower. The sex had been acceptable, but she felt guilty in a strange way... She had spent so much time without even kissing anyone but Yamcha, and now she had slept with a cute stranger, and that was too much to process at once.

Bulma fled from the house that belonged to whoever the fuck this guy was, and she was not ashamed of it. She was more ashamed of the fact that she didn’t even bother learning this guy’s name. She took the box of capsules she always kept with her inside her bra, took a capsule of a car, and drove home, but only after locating exactly where she was in West City. After coming home, she mused in the shower, and came to the conclusion that the night she had wasn’t so bad, after all. She was never a party person, but it was nice to forget about the Capsule Corp and Yamcha's problems a little, even though she even thought of him durind the night.

But secretly she wanted to be with him, and just thinking about him hurt in a strange way in her chest. Thinking for the first time that they might never date again filled her with fear and relief, in a way.

Some time passed, and Bulma was having fun occasionally. She had tried to date another guy, which lasted a couple of months, but he was too bland for anyone with her personality. To be honest, all the men she had tried something with were either assholes or too boring or bad in bed, or some combination of the previous characteristics, and a part of Bulma was beginning to think she would never get anything better than Yamcha, and this thought scared her a little. But other than that, she had barely heard of him, and only heard about him through sports channels and gossip magazines, that showed him going out with someone new every once in a while, that her mother bought and left at some tables in the living room.

Until one day he contacted her. Bulma knew that if she met Yamcha it probably wouldn't end well for her no matter what happened, but she agreed to see him anyway. She missed him in a sense, and she was willing to risk it.

It was after midnight when he arrived at his house wearing his baseball team’s jacket, which was soon removed upon entering the house, and they sat on the couch, with only one lamp lighting the room. She offers wine from her private collection, which he quickly accepts, and soon they are once again in an awkward silence. It's ridiculous how his presence still affects her, even though they haven't seen each other in over a year. Bulma takes a deep breath and gathers the courage to start saying what she wants, _needs_ to say.

"I heard you were hanging out with a new girl. Another new girl, I mean. The fourth, I think." Bulma speaks, her voice a little shaky. Why was he there with her after so long?

"That's true. But I can't stop thinking about you." Yamcha says, and her heart skips a beat, and she blushes slightly. "Actually, I've been thinking about you since we broke up."

"I've been there a few times. Maybe more than a few times." Bulma confesses.

Everything happens exactly as she knew it would happen, he kisses her, loves her, make promisses that he won't keep and they come back. Even knowing how things would probably go, Bulma can’t do anything to stop their virtually infinite cycle from coming and going, and just watches them spin around and around and around each other. Their relationship isn't exactly _bad_, but it always seems like they no longer have that much in common with each other, and she lacks the urge to see him, but at the same time, he had been the best man she'd ever had an intimate relationship with.

It's _hard_. The good moments are great, but the bad ones are terrible. She sometimes wishes she had no choice, because being free is having to know what she wants and being sure, and she feels like she doesn’t know what she wants. At 25 Bulma feels as lost as she was at 17, and unlike just about anything in her life, this is not a problem she could solve.


	6. I throw the plate, get drunk and blackout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, new chapter. i was posting 2 at the same time, but after this, i will translate one chapter at a time, because the chapters are starting to get longer. soon we'll be at like 4k words and damn, i am fucked. the biggest chapter had over 6k words, which is more content than this fic has at this point, so it will take a while to translate

When they break up, more than a year later, it's their worst break up ever. Bulma discovers that Yamcha cheated on her, and she loses it completely.

When confronting him she throws the most expensive things she can get her hands on the walls of his apartment, shouts, curses, and Puar is the only presence that keeps her from advancing on Yamcha and hitting him until his face can be recognized only through his dental arch.

She cries like never before on the way home, and when she gets there she has the urge to set fire on everything related to him that she had kept at her house over their years together, but she sees a picture of the two of them at sixteen years old, and Bulma gives up on her idea. She was almost twenty-seven, and nothing in her life seemed to change for the better. Heck, at sixteen she hoped that by this time of her life she would be married to Yamcha already, but here she was, breaking up with him for what seemed like the thousandth time, and probably the last. Bulma could put up with a lot, but cheating was just too much.

Over the next few months, Bulma worked and went out to drink and have sex more than she had ever done before (not that she had gone out much before, anyways), and even engaged in dating because she was trying to reestablish her life knowing she would not get back together with Yamcha, and that they are finished and had no intentions of getting back together. But on one of these times going out, she had gone to meet Launch at Master Roshi's house, only to find out that she had been gone four years ago and never returned. Heck, how long had Bulma seen any of the Z Warriors, except for Yamcha? She had been so busy that she hadn't even noticed the years going by.

But that very day _many_ things happen, and a few hours later Goku is dead, his son kidnapped by Piccolo (Goku had a son?), two aliens are coming to destroy the planet or something in a year, and Bulma has to understand and translate an alien language to set up an alien device as quickly as possible to locate and contact Tien Shinhan, Chaos, and Yamcha, and the planet really depended on her knowledge of linguistic theory (which wasn't much).

The year goes by in a confusing blur. Bulma picks up the dragon balls to wish Goku back to life, but he contacts her from the afterlife (with this one she thought "is this fucking serious?"), and tells her to wish him back only the day they aliens reach Earth, and both her and Master Roshi just say "okay, whatever."

Bulma sinks even deeper at work during this year, where she starts to build more guns and more gravitational prototypes than in her combined life, is more aggressive in business than ever before closing deals and making trade moves. Bulma also starts to carry a very powerful weapon with her as a precaution in case any shit happens. And it happens, but it's her fault.

She was trying some recreational drugs out of stress, but she didn't like the effects of most of them, and she had a terrible bad trip when trying out LSD, when she tought that the aliens had come to Earth earlier and were stalking her. Her psychotic break was such that she pulled out her weapon and fired two shots at a bar sign that literally became two huge holes and at the edges a strange mix of melted plastic and metal. Luckily no one died, and only two people were slightly burned, and another was injured while trying to run.

Obviously, Bulma ends the night in jail. The weapon she had created was neither approved nor in circulation, therefore it was illegal, and it had destroyed private property, injured people and caused chaos in that part of the city, all while she was on the effect of illicit drugs. For her night to be complete, some paparazzi also went after her to take pictures of the most coveted bachelorette on the planet being handcuffed by the police and entering the police car.

Since she has a degree in electrical engineering, she stays in a special cell, so she assumes that this is good, and she calls her parents to bail her out. But who shows up to get her out after dawn and about 9 am is her older sister, Tights. Bulma was simply destroyed, having just dozed off for two or three hours on the hideous mattress of the cell, but when she saw her sister, she couldn't help but smile. How long has been since she last saw Tights? Bulma couldn't really recall.

"Hi trouble." Tights speaks, and Bulma feels like a child again, and they hug tightly. "You look just like when you were 22. I mean, off that old smudged makeup. But you still dress up as well as before. Really liked the jacket. Anyway, I was around here, so I told Mom and Dad I would pick you up at the police station."

As they leave the police station flashes falls on them, much to Bulma's chagrin.

"_Fuck_." Bulma curses as she gets inside her sister's car. "It looks like I'm a rock star or something like that. I can already imagine what they are saying about me."

"You don’t need to imagine, I bought some gossip magazines talking about you." Tights grabs three magazines from the backseat and tosses them in Bulma's lap. The headlines were all about her, with pictures of her handcuffed, while the stories speculated about her personal life. "These are for you. You are on the cover of all the magazines of the day, and I think this is quite a feat, even though this week has been a weak one for gossips. Anyways, we are not going home now. Dad is pissed at you."

"Wow, I'm really surprised something I did made Dad mad. I thought he had no limits of how much shit he and Mom are willing to ignore." Bulma said, and it was true. Her parents never seemed to care about anything she did, no matter how bad it was. "So where do we go?"

"Have breakfast. You look like you've been dead for a few weeks and they forgot to bury you." Her sister answers, and for the rest of the way there they are in silence.

They arrive at a coffee shop, and Bulma puts on her leather jacket when she gets out of the car. The sisters sit in a more private spot in the cafeteria, and Bulma orders a large cup of coffee without sugar and a piece of cherry pie. Tights doesn't seem very interested in eating, so she just orders a small cappuccino.

"Okay Bulma, spit it out. I know something is wrong." Tights begins talking while Bulma plays with the napkin in her hands. "You are the smartest person I know. I mean, you're horrible at emotional intelligence and stuff, but nobody’s perfect, and you're the most competent person I have ever met. It's not like you to have such an attack, let alone in public and even hurting other people."

Bulma takes a deep breath. It's a waste of time to hide these things from Tights, since she knows so much about Bulma (somehow, because they haven’t seen each other in like five years). Her sister has seen far more of the universe than Bulma would ever dare to know, and if there was anyone who could help, it would be her. Bulma then spends an eternity explaining about her entire story, Goku, the aliens, the dragon balls, and the concrete possibility of Earth being destroyed, while Tights listens in silence. After Bulma finishes telling her everything, her sister spends a few moments pondering what has been said.

"Is the Earth really going to be destroyed, or is it just a guess? And what do these aliens want here?"

"I don't know what they want here. I think they want the dragon balls, but I'm not sure." Bulma responds while taking a bite of pie. "Do you know anything about what someone from another planet might want here?"

"I know there's a guy who eliminates the population of some planets to sell them to intergalactic tycoons." Tights comments, putting sugar in her cappuccino. "But Earth is considered a low quality planet, so I doubt he’s going to send anyone here to do anything. But I understand why you are looted. This is a pretty shitty situation. But what you did was pretty bad, and the image of the Capsule Corp was certainly stained. You know this company is dad's life."

"What I do or don't do shouldn't matter. I'm a scientist, not a fucking rockstar or a role model. Besides, no matter what I do, I always stay in Dad's shadows, even though I'm as good as him, or maybe even better."

"Bulma ... Don't be silly." Her sister began, looking at her a little sadly. "Nothing you do will ever be enough. Nothing we both do will be enough. You just have to prove yourself in other ways, you know? Either you do something that can never be challenged, which is almost impossible, or you accept that no one will ever see how good you are, and keep doing what you like. But you are 27 years old. Act like it, or everyone will behave like you're a troublemaker, which is what you looked like yesterday."

"I know. It's just hard, you know? These people talking about me, saying that I am a horrible person, that I am cool because I'm beutiful, that I am a terrible influence, that I am just one of those daughters of tycoons who only has the position she has because of the money of her family.

And I am all alone. I'm always lonely. Every fucking man always say I'm a cool girl, because I'm different from other girls and because I have the beauty to back it up, but when they realize I'm _better_ than them, more obssessed in learning new things than they are confortable with, they run. They don't want an equal, they just want who they think they want.

Everything is pilling up, and now the world will end, and I don't know how I can hold the ends."

"So don't stay here. I can take you off planet if you want."

"I _have_ to stay. I'm the one who has to stay if something goes wrong. I am literally the only person who has more than half of the brain working. But at least if I die, everyone dies with me. So I decided to enjoy what I have left of life on earth if I die." Tights nods at Bulma’s words.

"I will leave, just in case. And I won’t tell anyone about what you said to me." She smiles at Bulma. "And you have to stop acting like you’re going to die in a few months, because nothing good can come of it, and nothing good has come so far. You have to deal with life's possibilities in some other way."

The other way that emerged was that Bulma realized that she had a habit of conveying her dominance through sex. Was she feeling powerless? The answer was to have sex with this guy who's her fuck of the month until she gets tired of him, throws him away and gets another one. Fear that the aliens could destroy the earth? The answer was the same.

When this horrible year is over, the worst happens and Tien Shinhan, Chaos, Piccolo and Yamcha die, Goku is seriously injured, and one of the aliens escapes, courtesy of Goku. Bulma totally loses her mind when she realizes that Yamcha is dead and that he cannot be brought back to life, and agrees to take an intergalactic trip to a distant alien planet in the company of Gohan and Krillin just to revive him. She should not have been so deeply affected by Yamcha's death, especially after he had cheated on her. But damn, she couldn't forget the years together, and a part of her was so affected she was planning on getting back with him, because she is a sucker.

After a little less than two infernal months since the aliens arrived on Earth and an interplanetary voyage, the planet they travel to explodes, but practically everyone who was alive on this planet was literally magically transported back to Earth. At least this hell is over, Bulma presumes, lying on the green grass she has just fallen, in the company of a few hundred Namekians, a few allies, and an unexpected ally of a Sayajin.

She feels so hopeful that she not only invites the Namekians, who were now without a planet to live in to stay at her home for now, but also invites Vegeta, the murderous Sayajin indirectly involved in Yamcha's death to stay at her home, but that is one more decision born out of pity and pragmatism (she would never let this total freak on the loose on Earth with no one to keep an eye on).

At least after more than a year, things finally seemed to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, vegeta appears in this chapter, and contrary to popular belief, he appears in this fic. anyways, share your thoughts on the fic guys, i aways like to know what you guys think


	7. an abundance of guests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> today, translating this chapter I realized that I need to change some names to fit the english version which sucks and I am fucking mad by the fact that in english Kuririn's name is Krillin, like what the hell america??

Bulma was trying to think about the bright side of things. The Namekians in her house have their own dragon balls, and because of that they can fulfill three wishes at a time, plus their year is completed in 130 days, which means in a few months she will be able to see Yamcha again.

With Vegeta in the house, Bulma returns to the habit of building weapons, so that if he hypothetically acts again as a psychotic killer, then she would have a chance to prevent him from killing her. A very low chance, but she'll take what she can get. Initially she takes the gun with her everywhere, and sleeps with her at the head of the bed, but with Vegeta's good behavior, she eventually lets her guard down.

As the months pass, and the Namekians’ spheres can be used again, the first three requests are to revive Krillin and Goku. But they find out that Goku was alive on another distant alien planet all along, and Yamcha is revived instead.

She and Puar jump at him as soon as they see him, filled by the joy of having him back after so long. She leaves Puar and Yamcha alone for a while, after all they must have so much to talk about, and the longing must be intense after a considerable time apart.

But when she arrives later and Bulma is alone with Yamcha, she realizes how bad she wanted him, because she was determined to ride him until she breaks him, and when they are in bed, she sits on him so hard that he says “ouch, this actually kind of hurt”, and she has to stop for a moment and apologize, only to realize that she tore her bed sheets unintentionally.

Apart from this unfortunate incident, all went well in their reunion. And her other guest, Vegeta, upon discovering that Goku was out in space, immediately picked up the spaceship that Bulma had promised him in exchange for his good behavior on Earth, and went into space to try to find for his self-proclaimed rival. Bulma watches him go away with some relief, and thinks, "I hope this motherfucker never comes back. He could die in space, preferably. Oh, I really shouldn't have made such a good spaceship for someone like him." She even gives him a little goodbye wave just to mock him.

At least she didn't have to use against him one of several superpowered weapons she built on account of his stay under the same roof as her, although as time went on, it was becoming increasingly clear that Vegeta didn't intend to attack the Earth.

As the months go by, Bulma realizes that her relationship with Yamcha is going surprisingly well. They have more time for themselves, and with a little embarrassment Bulma realizes that they might be doing better than ever in their relationship. The couple still can't talk very well, and they still get on each other's nerves, but she's willing to ignore that for a little peace and quiet, and a good fuck.

Eventually the Namekians revive Tien and Chaos, and return to a new version of their planet, courtesy of the dragon balls, and Bulma imagines that finally her time as a hostess is over, at least for now.

Except that, a few months later, Vegeta literally falls into her backyard. When Bulma rushes off to see why the loud noise outside her house, she can't help but be impressed with the fact that he made it back there.

As he descends from the wrecked spaceship with his usual royal prick deameanor, Bulma almost throws up. He smells like a distinct mix of a rotting corpse, sweat and open sewage. It's not possible that he didn't take a single fucking shower during the whole year he was gone. With her nose plugged, she tries to start a basic aggressive passive conversation with him.

"What are you doing here and why do you smell like a dead rat? There was a bathroom on the ship."

"I didn't find Kakarot, and I didn't have time for that. I came back because surely Kakarot will come back to Earth sooner or later. Then we can fight." Vegeta answers calmly, and Bulma wonders what would be so important that he didn't have the time to wash _once_.

"My _god_ get in the house and take a shower for the love of god or I _will_ throw up in your face." Surprisingly he enters the house, and Bulma runs out to show the bathroom. What if he never took a bath while he was in her house? Disgusting. "I'll get you some clothes later, now just enter the bathroom. So you still want to destroy the Earth? And did you shower while you stayed here the last time?"

She pushes him into the bathroom, and starts looking for a scent spray in the bathroom cabinet.

"It would be a waste of time and effort to destroy it." Vegeta responds, while Bulma is still with her back to him, trying to find the spray in the middle of the sea of containers. "Besides, I really enjoyed the food here. And yes, I bathed while I was here. I'm not a monster."

"I'm not so sure about that." She says, kinda mocking him.

When she finds the spray and turns around, she is startled to see that he is serenely undressing beside her.

"What the _fuck_?" Vegeta screams, when Bulma presses the spray in his face, making him stop undressing. He had already taken off his broken armor, gloves, and boots, and had already begun to take off the top of the flattering leotard he had on.

"Why were you taking off your clothes while I'm here? And you had the nerve to say that _I_ was the vulgar one."

"You told me to take a shower, and you were complaining so loudly that I just wanted you to shut up. I did what I had to do, and you still are complaining."

"You can't go undressing in front of anyone, it's weird." Bulma was almost intrigued, as how someone had so little social ability? He looked like Goku when he was 12, who had never interacted with anyone else in his life except his grandfather.

"Why not? I'm in the bathroom. When I was in Freeza's army everyone showered in the same locker room."

"Even the women?" She asks in a condescending tone, and Vegeta seems to stop to think for a brief second.

"No. But it wasn't like they had many. Now if you want me to shower, get out of here." Vegeta speaks, and Bulma leaves right away.

At least after that he remained the usual weird person that he seemed to be, and he spends days and even weeks away. In fact, it was as if he were a ghost who sometimes disappeared with food from the fridge and left dirty clothes in the laundry, so he barely crossed paths with her, and much less with Yamcha, and consequently didn't bother neither of them.

Except the day Bulma was practically having sex with Yamcha on the kitchen counter, knowing that her parents weren't home and relying on the fact that Vegeta would be anywhere else in the world. But this was a great moment to show how unpredictable he was, because Bulma was kissing her boyfriend, wearing a transparent bra, with Yamcha between her legs and her half-raised skirt when a sweaty, dirty Vegeta enters the kitchen with everything, just to suddenly stop realizing what was about to happen there.

Bulma immediately stops kissing as soon as she notices Vegeta's presence, pushes Yamcha away from her and closes her legs as quickly as possible while searching for something to cover her breasts, and when she finds nothing put a transparent plate, she just folds her arms across her chest. Fuck, that was rather embarassing.

Vegeta looks at Yamcha's erection, then at Bulma's breasts, where he spends more time than he should (the time he should spend looking at her was zero, so anything else was an insult), then lets a surprisingly ironic “pffft” out of his lips and goes towards the fridge. Bulma blushes with shame and an almost uncontrollable anger, but she and Yamcha are like two idiots in stunned silence as they watch Vegeta grab a one-and-a-half-liter bottle of water, open it and drink it in a few gulps. When he finally finishes the bottle, he drops it on the counter, and goes out of the kitchen.

"Nice hair." Vegeta speaks, pointing to the perm she made in her hair, and Bulma is absolutely sure he is mocking her. The audacity of this motherfucker made her even angrier.

"I totally lost the urge to do anything that doesn’t involve screaming at Vegeta." Bulma comments as Vegeta leaves the kitchen as she comes down from the counter to look for her shirt. "Not my _hair. _I know it doesn't look great, but this is absurd."

"Surprisingly, me too. Or not that surprisingly." Yamcha agrees, making a face. "And I will refrain from talking about your hair."

Bulma pretends not to listen what Yamcha has said about her hair. She was pissed about someone else. This was the first time she had genuinely regretted hosting anyone in her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic is all about awkward meetings. really. i'm just too fond of making everyone unconfortable


	8. I'll start, bad boy down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go again with more profanities. and this time y'all will probably like it

The good phase of Bulma and Yamcha’s relationship soon ends, however, after Freeza proves to be as unpredictable as Vegeta, and appears on Earth, just as Bulma is in the middle of a barbecue with Yamcha, Puar, Vegeta and Oolong, only to be killed quickly, along with all his troops who were on Earth, by a teenager who claimed to come from the future. Honestly, at this point so much weird shit has happened that Bulma actually believes in the boy.

The boy from the future is weird, overly polite, and he's so suspicious to the point of wearing a Capsule Corp jacket, and the jacket really suited her style. Bulma finds him distinctly familiar, but she can't place exactly what is familiar about him.

The boy, who has made a point of not saying his name, says that in three years all Z warriors will die in the hands of a pair of Androids, except Goku, who dies of a heart attack a few months earlier, and Gohan, who lives long enough to train this boy, who, despite his exotic appearance to the species, is also a Saiyan. Bulma discovers she survives too, and is the brain behind this boy's time travel, as the future world collapsed with the attack of these Androids. (Bulma chuckled and was amazed at her own intelligence. I mean, time travel? She _really_ was outstanding.)

Now, knowing the threat that will come to them in three years, and receiving medicine to prevent Goku's heart attack, everyone agrees to train to prevent this impending disaster. And it is in this training that things get more complicated. Bulma knew that training for three years to survive meant seeing Yamcha much less than usual. This time she will also work a lot harder, as she comes to an agreement with Vegeta, that she will study his physics in the lab, entitled to blood samples, X-rays and everything, and in return, she will put an effort in the Gravity Chamber she has at home for him to train, and will fix it when he needs it and make updates to it when possible. She also intends to study about the energy of the Androids, which the boy said was infinite, and this intrigued her greatly.

In the months that followed, she interacted with Vegeta more than they ever had before, and honoring her part of the deal was being much harder than she ever expected it to be, because sometimes Bulma just wanted to tell him to fuck off and stop being such a dick. They had really similar personalities, and at that moment it seemed impossible that they wouldn't argue at every turn of events. It was getting to a point she was starting to find their arguments _entertaining, _which made no sense at all.

But secretly she finds him interesting, and starts to study him without him noticing. The two are in her lab while Bulma takes his measurements in an attempt to gather as much knowledge as possible about the Saiyan warrior race.

"You're much lighter than I thought you would be... interesting." Bulma comments to herself, writing the data in a notebook.

Vegeta seems to want to be anywhere else in the world than there with her, but Bulma can't let the scientist inside bother with his angry face. Her thirst for knowledge can never be saciated.

“I'll make a test with you, right?” Bulma announces, and he doesn't say anything, so she assumes he agreed. “I'll shoot you. Don’t need to freak out, I know it won't hurt your skin, when I met Goku I shot him in the middle of his forehead and nothing happened, and he was only 12 years old.”

Vegeta looks at her as if she's crazy, and then uninterestedly picks up one of her guns from the table, and Bulma jumps up to stop him.

“Not this one.” Bulma speaks, reaching to take the gun from his hand, and gives him a nervous laugh. "This one I made as a protection just in case you did something, so it will probably do some damage. In fact, it blocks Ki points.”

“If I did something?” Vegeta is almost incredulous, and now she seemed to have finally caught his attention.

"I built some very high-powered weapons just in case if you went out killing everyone. It probably couldn't do anything, but I always preferred to have a few tricks up my sleeve. Good thing you did nothing, right?” She said, winking at him.

He didn't look very convinced, but accepted the explanation. They get ready, and she pulls out a simple weapon, and shoots it right in the middle of his chest, and goes running to analyze where the impact occurred. After seeing that she really didn't hurt him, and that he had only slightly hurt the area, she wrote down everything she saw in him.

“I'll do a blood test, and then I'll ask you some questions, right?”

"As long as it's over soon, that's fine. I want to train.”

Bulma picks up the materials needed to collect the blood samples, and after taking the necessary amount, she cleaned the wound and took out her notebook.

"How old were you in your oldest memory?" She starts asking.

“Two, I think. But I spent a few years in a nutrient chamber. Every Saiyan child goes through this.”

“Interesting. When did your teens start? Like when did you start going through the changes from having a child's body to having a more adult one? And when did your body stabilize and stopped growing?”

“I was fifteen years old.” Bulma was surprised by his answer. “I reached my adulthood at eighteen.”

“OK then. Have you ever had any sexual contact with your species? Or did you have any knowledge of the reproductive process of the Saiyans?” Vegeta turned slightly red, and Bulma was simply shocked. Really? A shy assassin?

“I did not have. I don't know much about the details of these things. All the women died, I think.” That was a pity, but Bulma didn't bother much with the answer. Goku had a son, so their reproductive process should be extremely similar to that of humans.

“How old were you when your home planet was destroyed?”

“About eight. I was on a mission, and I didn't want to go back when Freeza called all Saiyans soldiers back to our planet.”

That was new to her. Bulma realized that he was even younger than she had guessed, and she didn't think he was too old. She kept asking questions until she was satisfied and ended the study session.

The results of the formal tests showed that he is extremely human-like (like the fact that his blood type is B-), except for one-off things like the fact that he had a tail, or that his skin was thicker than that of any normal human. However, for Bulma it is not enough, and as a scholar, she wants to understand Vegeta completely, so she observes his habits, what kind of things he likes (he doesn't seem to like many things, but she eventually realizes that the Saiyan likes mystery TV shows, when not too busy sleeping, training, eating or dying after a particularly difficult training session). The scientist also realizes that he makes an effort to learn the Earth’s alphabet, and that he improved his writing substantially in a few months.

Above all, Bulma realizes that Vegeta wants her. He's hard to read, but she feels she's getting good at it lately, and she can see that he looks at her differently at times, when she's wearing revealing clothes, or when she's screaming at his face that today she won't have time to fix the fucking gravity room. And worst of all, she wants him too. Vegeta is handsome in a dangerous way, and very much her type. She always had a crush on bad boys.

It's been two months without hearing from Yamcha, and Bulma finds herself wondering what it would be like to have Vegeta all to herself. But that's wrong, and she has a damn boyfriend, a boyfriend who already cheated on her, so would it be so wrong for her to cheat on him too? Ugh, of course it would be...

Bulma is in this dilemma for a while, even when Yamcha comes back to her life. And she really is startled by the extent of her attraction to Vegeta, because if before she thought it was just lack of sex, now she was beginning to realize that it was something much stronger than that.

One day during one of their talks, late at night when Vegeta finds her drinking in the kitchen after fighting with Yamcha again, Vegeta asks an uncomfortable question.

“Why are you still with him? You complain so much about him.” He asks, and she looks at him without answering, thinking.

“It's complicated. We've split up before, but we always come back, and we've been together for so long.” She giggles, enjoying the taste of alcohol in her mouth.

Vegeta looks at Bulma as if she has grown a second head, but she tries to make him understand, after all, it was terribly clear at this point that he was the person with the least notion of interpersonal relationships she had ever known, which was quite a feat, considering the people she knows.

"I'll simplify, since you know nothing about human relationships. Or any kind of relationship that doesn't involve domination, for that matter. It's just that he makes me laugh, and sometimes he makes me scream.” Bulma confesses, with shoulders shrugged.

The look Vegeta gives her is so intense that she can see that he wants to make her scream too, and with her head slightly light due to the vodka she was drinking, she looks at his bare torso (he has an aversion to shirts, apparently), nibbles on her bottom lip, and unbuttons the blouse she's wearing, no bra underneath and shows her breasts to him, and speaks quietly.

"If you want, you can try to make me scream, and maybe I'll make you scream too." And after slightly gaping for two seconds, he steps in to kiss her, and she does the same.

He has a strange kiss, as it is uncertain and almost shaky, but when he follows the pace dictated by her, it's surprisingly good, and she has the slight suspicion that he has never kissed anyone before. Their hands begin to roam each other's bodies, and she quickly sits in his lap and begins to rub her private parts on his over his clothes, sitting on him while he is sits in a chair, and she can hear his breathing getting heavier with each movement of her hips.

She begins to kiss his neck, and in return he begins to touch her breasts, touching and squeezing, so slowly it's almost too much to handle. He then bends down to lick her nipple, and when he reaches her nipple she gasps, and she gets even more turned on, as he sucks her breasts curiously and somewhat hesitantly. And she throws her head back and enjoys the feeling.

But after touching her breasts, he makes a movement toward her hips, and Bulma quickly understands what he wants. She climbs off him to climb onto the table, and takes off the shorts she was wearing, along with her panties, and spreads her legs shamelessly, leaving her sex exposed for him to see and do whatever he wants with her.

“Where is it for me to touch or enter?” Vegeta speaks for the first time since they kissed, and Bulma is terribly confused. He never fucked anyone? Noticing her confusion, he soon adds. "I never slept with an earthling."

“Okay then.” She speaks, not very convinced by his answer, but decides not to think about it and begins to guide his hand. “This is the entrance.” She instructs him, sticking two fingers of himself, and sighs. “And this is where you should… play.” She shows, taking his thumb to touch her clit, sighing even louder.

He then begins to make back and forth movements with his fingers inside her, and he carefully opens her pussy with his fingers, making her shiver with pleasure. When he stops playing with her entrance, and begins to touch her clit, and she can't help but pant slightly. Quickly he starts making all kinds of movements, even pinching (which made her squeal in both pain and pleasure, and he stopped quickly) and sucking (this time she just moaned). In doing so for a while, Bulma finally decides she has had enough, and even with the pleasure she was feeling, he had to stop or she would come, and she sincerely wanted to cum with him inside herself.

“Okay, hot stuff. Follow me to the living room.” She gets up from the table and pushes him lightly. He follows her in silence, and as soon as he gets close to the couch she stops, and speaks again. “Take off those hideous pants and sit on the couch.”

She just looks pleased as Vegeta takes off his sweatpants and showing off his hard cock, and sits obediently, waiting for her.

"Do you mind if I sit on you and show you how?" Bulma speaks, and he just shakes his head denying it without saying a word. He was a little red, and she finds him almost cute.

That way she kneels on the couch, grabs his dick and places it at her wet entrance, and goes down in a swift motion. They both gasp almost in unison, and as she rises and falls on him, he also begins to move his hips in sync with hers, and within minutes she is already moaning without shame as she asks him to fuck her harder. When he starts touching her clit while slamming into her, she can't help it and quickly starts saying incoherent things, and when she realizes, she's cumming on his dick, and it is so good that aches, and she can feel right after that he comes inside her, with him practically screaming in her ear. She hopes he liked this as much as she did.

But as soon as they are done, consciousness returns to Bulma in a terrifying way, who immediately gets up without saying a word, almost runs into the kitchen and puts her clothes on at an impressive speed. She's all sweaty and smeared, and she really wants to pretend nothing happened. They were very lucky that they weren't caught by her parents or woke them up, and she really needs to stop banging men in her kitchen. She lives in a mansion, and even though most of the work of cleaning and maintaining the house is made by robots and this was a very private residence, there are still many people who worked in other parts of the compound.

And now she feels very ashamed about what she did and who she did it with. She passes by Vegeta who is putting his ugly sweatpants back on, and stops to talk to him.

“None of this happened.” She talks, serious. “And these pants are awful, by the way. You look better without them.” And goes to her room right after speaking, without looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you enjoyed


	9. sweet guilty pleasure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, here I am. honestly, translating is like SO much easier than actually writing. I'm posting faster than I thought I would. anyways, here's a fun chapter where everybody is actually being their worst possible self

The following week Bulma feels so guilty that she wants to cry. She pretends not to see Vegeta walking around the house in just that ridiculously tight training shorts, and she feels like he is dressed like that to mock her, and talks to him only when strictly necessary. She only looks at his face when, a few days later, she was making updates in the gravity room and making the weekly check to see if the machine’s program was working properly or if any of its parts was worn out, when he entered the room, and looked at her curiously.

“Weekly check-up.” She stands off the floor and straightens her dirty clothes, unsure of what to say in his presence. “I'm going now.”

And she leaves as quickly as possible, leaving a confused Vegeta behind. Bulma can't help but be embarrassed when she sees him, and he's so strangely handsome and fascinating that she wants to get closer to him, even though it would be better not to. But she still has a boyfriend, and even if their relationship is empty and crumbling down, she won't give up that easy. She endured so much to just give up Yamcha like that.

When she goes out with Yamcha, and he's at her house briefly, Vegeta appears from wherever the fuck he was hiding just to piss her off. He started suggest that they hooked up in front of her and Yamcha, and she was so furious at the audacity of Vegeta trying to muddle her personal life that she could barely maintain her composure, and sent a deadly look at Vegeta as she left the house, and turned down anything Yamcha had to ask.

Later that night, Bulma is in bed with Yamcha, but she can only think of Vegeta, and the memories of his sex coming in and out of her are enough to get her there, and when the intense pleasure fades, guilt comes at full force. She tries not to show her feelings, and when she gets home she runs to the shower in an attempt to get rid of the deep shame she feels of herself.

Two days later she's in the lab, relaxing with her personal project after a three-hour meeting with Capsule Corp executives to decide whether they should announce the company's new computer models or wait a few more months of development to actually announce. It's strange how she leaves one lab in the company to go to another at home, and even though Bulma is exhausted, and she works with her personal project on infinite clean energy to relax, in a clearly futile attempt to understand how the androids of the future work. While she makes some notes on solar energy, Vegeta enters the lab without warning. Bulma can't help but roll her eyes, because if Vegeta shows up in her lab, it's because he wants her to do something for him, this thing usually being the Gravity Chamber.

"Hi," she says, not taking her eyes off the computer. She wasn't in the mood for talking, and his presence in her safe space didn't help either, especially after they had sex in the living room/kitchen. She really hadn't gotten over it. After that, she felt kind of scared of her own desires whenever Vegeta came close to her.

“You’re acting weird. More than usual.” Bulma turned to look at him, dumbfounded, and somewhat annoyed. Had he come to her lab, distracted her, just to say she was being weird? Of course she was acting differently, after all that had happened it would be strange if she _continued_ to act in exactly the same way as before.

"You don't have anything else to do? Like training yourself to death in the gravity room?” She says rudely, but Vegeta just approaches her, saying nothing. He only stops when he leans against her desk, next to the chair where she's sitting, and he's so close that Bulma can touch him if she raises her hand only a bit.

“I know my limits.” He says, but she just chuckles, because that's definitely not true. "I'm here because you're avoiding me."

Vegeta comes a little closer to her face, and honestly, kissing him seems like a great idea right now, even though he's talking shit. Maybe it’s precisely _because_ he's talking shit. But honestly, he _was _right, but she would never admit it.

"I didn't think avoiding someone was your style, but I think it's good to know you have some kind of shame, at least." This time she is the one approaching, and when she realizes, she is already standing, pushing Vegeta against her desk and kissing him hard. He seemed to be expecting this, because he kisses her back with the same intensity. She presses him against the desk, and he grabs her hair, and it’s funny how they fit so well against each other, even though she is a bit taller than him.

It is kind of crazy how he affects her head. Bulma really wanted to have him for herself, and as he kisses her neck and helps her take off her shirt, and when his lips find her nipple, she grabs his hair softly and moans. This shouldn't be this good. Then she touches his face, and locks their lips together in a kiss, and she puts her hand on his pants, making back and forth moviments on his dick. Why is he so hot? That’s not fair. She gets aroused with the look on his face when she touches him like this, she feels like she is the most powerful and enciting woman in the universe.

And at a speed that was definitely out of the ordinary, Bulma found herself sitting at her desk, with him taking off her panties and lifting her skirt, and now it's his turn to put his hand over her pussy, and soon she is already panting, and fuck, this just feels so good. But she wants him, and she wants him now. She moves, and in one movement pulls his pants down, leaving Vegeta looking kind of surprised.

"It's fine, you can fuck me now." Bulma wraps her legs around his hips, and in a subtle motion he is inside her. The sex between them is better than it should ever be, and he moves in and out of her with a fervor that makes her beg for more. Every thrust leaves her breathless, and with her head spinning with lust.

She is practically lying on the table, panting with pleasure, and she can't help but find his expression while fucking her so beautiful. Vegeta then begins to pinch one of her nipples, and still puts one leg of her on his shoulder, and Bulma lets out a moan with the shift of position, feeling that her orgasm is getting dangerously close now. She moans, screams at him to fuck her _harder_, grabs his arm hard enough that it should leave marks, and when she comes, she quivers so much that Vegeta is taken aback and ends up coming faster than he seemed to want, with an almost obstinate moan.

As he climbs off her, Bulma notices the mess her desk is now, and that some of her papers with calculations and observations are stained. With cum. Great, honestly.

She straightens her skirt and puts back her bra and shirt, and glances at Vegeta. In retrospect it was obvious that he wanted her to do something for him, in which case it would be to open her legs so he could get inside her, and then out. Repeatedly. She doesn't care much about that, but it puzzles her, because knowing that he thinks she's smart and apparently had a taste for having sex with her, Bulma genuinely didn't know what Vegeta thought of her. Did he find her annoying? Sometimes it seemed so, but other times he seemed to appreciate her temper.

"Will you keep pretending nothing happened? I don't care, but it's funny to see you without being able to look at me.” He says as she bends down to search for her panties. ‘_You definitely sounds like you care’_, Bulma thinks, as she grabs her underwear under her chair. “I think it’s a yes then.”

“I have a lot to do. And I have a boyfriend. Anyway, it would be nice to keep pretending that nothing happened.” She speaks, but when she looks at him properly, she notices something, and tries to hide her laugh. His pants. “Oh my god, please tell me that these sweatpants you’re wearing are _not _the ones I told you that you looked better without.”

He _blushes_ and basically confirm her thoughts, and she starts to laugh. Bulma comes closer to him and grabs the bar of his pants, just to see his discomfort.

“I still think that you look better without it.” She tells him, and he looks almost cute when embarrassed, and she suddenly wants to kiss him, kinda in a non-sexual way. This is when she wakes up from her trance. What the fuck is she doing? Teasing someone who’s not her boyfriend after sex? She shouldn’t be doing this. He needed to leave, now. “Well… I think I need to be alone now.”

There is no need to do anything else, because Vegeta understands and leave the lab promptly, leaving a thoughtful Bulma behind.

The next day is a Wednesday, and Bulma can't contain herself from feeling immensely guilty. She needs to meet with Yamcha. She is not sure what she’s going to say or do, whether to break up with him, confess and ask for forgiveness, or anything else, but she knows she needs to see him. She puts on some clothes, and goes to his house, not far from hers.

Arriving at his building, Bulma goes up without looking at anyone, with a bad feeling in her chest. But when she opens the door with the key Yamcha had given her, she can immediately feel that something is _wrong_. When Puar arrives extremely nervous immediately after she enters the apartment, she is sure something is wrong, and already has a guess about what is wrong.

Bulma strides through the beautiful apartment, and opens the door to Yamcha's room, and when she enters, she comes across more or less what she had imagined. He was in bed with some random woman. They weren't having sex, and Bulma thanks god for that, but clearly they had sex, so the guilt that lay on the Capsule Corporation's heiress’ chest turns into an uncontrollable anger.

“_Again_?” She hisses in anger, seeing the face of her boyfriend and his mistress grow pale (would the right word be mistress? Bulma doesn't even know what to think). Yamcha tries to explain that this was a one time thing, but it only makes Bulma more furious. "Then you're _very_ incompetent, because I found out the only two times you cheated on me! I would never do something like this to you because I have _principles_.” The lie comes easily from her lips, as if she wants to punish him with the guilt of what she had done.

Everything that was happening was so messy and confusing that Bulma felt like she was in a scene from a bad TV show, because Yamcha gets out of the bed wearing only his boxers, trying to bargain with her, and Bulma can't help rolling her eyes at the scene before her.

“C’mon, you know it’s useless.” Bulma says, so furious that she feels surprisingly calm. "I'm not stupid, I've been through this shit once, and I definitely won't go through this again. It's over, and do me the favor of getting the fuck out of my life. I was stupid to think we could make it work.”

And she leaves, and it seems like it took forever and a split second at the same time to get to the car. Entering it, Bulma allows herself to scream in frustration, cry and kick. She'd been innocent, to think she just needed to grit her teeth and work harder to make the relationship work. Who would have thought a relationship of so many years would end like this, just a ghost of what it once was, with one stabbing the other in the back.

Well, that was on her. Their relationship has been dead for so long, even before he cheated on her for the first time. But they refused to end it, and _fuck_ now all she felt was sadness and relief. At least this was over and done. So she cries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's it! is there anything else someone wants to comment on? suggestions? I am open to any constructive criticism, honestly.


	10. no distance left to run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is what i like to call "crying for one and fucking the other". i know i took a while to get back but i just wasn't feeling like writing. anyways, enjoy and the song of the chapter is no distance left to run by blur

On the way back home Bulma can't stop thinking. She feels humiliated, relieved and sad all at once. One part of her knows she had it coming, and another didn't want to say good-bye like this, feeling nothing but anger and bitterness. When she gets home she wipes her tears and takes a deep breath, and hopes there is no one in her way to see her this miserable. When she walks in through the front door, she goes straight to her beverage collection in the kitchen, grabs a bottle of rum and a glass full of ice, and starts to drink.

After the third glass she decides that it would be a great idea to see Vegeta. She was feeling terrible, and she really wanted someone to make her feel good. He's probably training, or whatever the fuck he does in his free time, but she doesn't care. Bulma goes towards the gravity room, because where else would he be?

When she gets there, she sees that she was right (albeit unsurprisingly), and by entering a code that only she and her dad knows on the room entrance panel, she abruptly deactivates the gravity inside the chamber, and hears what she supposes to be Vegeta banging hard on the wall of the room. She giggles and opens the door, taking a last sip of her drink as she walks in.

As she enters the room, Vegeta looks at her with such an angry look on his face that she is almost flattered. Bulma sees where he hit the wall and makes a mental note to fix it later, and places the empty glass on the panel of the gravity room.

"What the fuck do you want from me?" He says, trying to contain his anger, and she approaches him. Surprisingly, he smells good even sweaty. “You're disturbing my training, get out of here.”

“Shut up.” Bulma says as she gets closer to him, and captures his lips with urgency. When they break the kiss, he's about to say something, but she cuts him off. “Don't say anything. Just do as I say, and you'll like it. Now take off your shorts.”

He takes a while to actually do as she says, but between their very intense kisses, he takes off his shorts, and when he gets naked in front of her, and she can see he's already half hard, and grins wickedly.

“Why am I always the one who gets naked first?” Vegeta asks, and Bulma’s grin turns into a laugh.

“It’s cause you’re always half naked.” His face shows that he doesn’t really believe this. “Fine, it’s because you’re hot.”

She pushes him to the floor and when he sits there she gets down and sucks his cock. Vegeta seemed to have been taken aback because he blushes a little, gives a low moan of satisfaction and grabs her neck softly, all at the same time.

“Why are you doing this?” He asks, his breath a little ragged.

"I told you to shut up." Bulma says, and for a moment she sees something very bad in his eyes. Maybe there is a limit to how far she can be bossy without making him mad. Honestly, she thought he would be much more on the domineering side, but he don't seems to mind her taking the lead, and Bulma really likes the idea. “I'm doing this because I want to fuck you. Now be quiet, and I promise it will be so good that you will moan my name and that you will not forget my cunt for a long time.”

And she sucks him again, and she has every intention of fulfilling what she promised. She fucks him with her mouth, and it doesn't take long for him to start panting, and as she goes through the motions that make him flush with embarrassment and pleasure, he puts his hand in her hair, and when he comes in her mouth, he lets out a moan without shame, and after that she swallows a little grudgingly, and takes off her clothes.

Bulma was really excited about what she could do with Vegeta, and when he realizes she wants more he gives a satisfied grin. As she starts to take off her clothes, she is already throbbing with desire. Then, before she even notices, he’s standing next to her, and gives her a kiss that makes her head spin, he watches her take off her clothes with lust in his eyes, and when she finally gets naked in front of him, he tries to kiss her again, just for her to push him down again.

"I told you, I'll fuck you, not the other way ‘round. Now sit back and I'll make you forget your name, okay?" He hesitates for a second, but then obeys her, and Bulma likes this new discovery _very_ much. He's already hard again, and they haven't done anything much yet, and that just makes her ego boost. A normal human would not get hard so fast.

She sits on his abdomen, and starts kissing him as she rubs herself on him. Vegeta has his hands fixed on her hips, and when she sits on him, she loves the feeling. She rides him painfully slow at first, but soon she falls at a frantic pace, fucking him mercilessly, leaving him totally at her mercy. And she really likes the power she has over him right now, and it's terribly delicious to have someone between her legs like that. At that moment she didn't care about anything else, she just wanted to make him forget his name, because she had already forgotten hers.

With every ride she gave him she was a little closer to losing her mind, turning everything white with pleasure, and she wanted him to feel the same way. The movements she made were almost mesmerizing, and at that moment she could have sworn he didn't really remember his name. She wiggled at him, rising and falling, getting better and more desperate, and she gasped, and she wanted them to stay like this forever, with such a good feeling in her pussy that she thinks she can go crazy and take him with her.

When she finally comes, she can't help but moan loudly, as that sensation overwhelms her body and makes her shiver, and as he continues to pound into her, she gets weak with pleasure, and Bulma can hear him moaning her name very low before coming undone too.

Before Vegeta can say or do anything, Bulma gets up and starts putting her clothes back on. She has nothing to say to him, and honestly, she liked to have sex with him, but she doesn't think she can talk to him right now, or has any intention of chatting after all that happened that day, because if she stayed for five more minutes with Vegeta she is sure that she would start to cry and tell everything that happened to him. And Bulma really didn't want that to happen. She just wanted to go to her room and cry, because as soon as the pleasure faded, her feelings came back stronger than before, and now she feels like she is the worst piece of garbage that has ever existed.

“And your boyfriend?” Vegeta asks, and she knows he's mocking her, but she just lets out a bitter laugh.

“I broke up with him earlier today.” Bulma replies, finishing getting dressed. She thinks it will be better for her own sanity not to know what he thinks of this information. "Sorry for interupting your training.... I won't do that again."

"You better." He murmurs, as she takes back the glass she had left on the panel, and leaves Vegeta alone and without clothes on the floor of the Gravity Chamber. 

Bulma fills another glass of drink, and returns to the room, feeling particularly defeated, until she sees a picture of her with Yamcha, and that sight leaves her burning with anger. She then takes an old box from her wardrobe and throws everything to do with Yamcha in it. She trows photos, cards, even some gifts and a bottle of cleaning alcohol into the box, then lights a cigarette and goes down. She had never been a particularly avid smoker, but occasionally she smoked a cigarette or two in times of stress or sadness, which was exactly how she felt now.

She comes down the stairs with the greatest patience in the world with the box in her hands, and starts picking up Yamcha's things, especially clothes, from the downstairs room, which belonged to him when he lived with her, and puts everything in the box. When she finally finishes putting everything related to Yamcha into the damn box, she puts it on the top of a rock in the middle of the garden at the back of the mansion.

While smoking the cigarette, Bulma throws alcohol into the box and belongings inside it, and after inhaling the smoke from the cigarette one last time, she throws the cigarette butt into the box, which immediately catches fire. She then takes another cigarette from her pocket, and lights it with the flames of the box, and watches the flames as she smokes, and some tears go down her cheeks, but she doesn't sob.

Bulma knew she was being dramatic and exaggerated, but she hoped that this would prevent her from making again the same mistakes she makes _everytime_. She never learns, but she hoped that this time she would do at least one thing right. She'd taken just about everything that reminded Yamcha of her things she could remember, except for the stupid sexy bunny costume she had stashed in her closet, and two pictures with him. One of these photos was the two of them together, Goku, Puar, Master Kame and Oolong, and the other photo was of Goku and Chichi's wedding.

In fact, Bulma had long believed that Yamcha was the one for her, and that was why she had endured more than anyone could bear. When they first met it seemed literally divine intervention how perfectly one seemed to have what the other sought. In fact, she still kind of believed he was the right guy for her, but they had changed a lot to keep working. It had not worked for years. Maybe their relationship never really worked out.

After a while watching the flames, lost in thoughts, her mother appears beside her.

“Honey, what are you doing?” Panchy asks gently, and Bulma lets the smoke out of her mouth.

“I broke up with Yamcha. He cheated on me.”

“Oh, I understand. Just don't let the fire spread to my flowers. You know how much I like them.” Your mother says, and leaves, leaving Bulma alone behind. Her parents had never been especially careful with her, and seemed to believe in that the best method to raise their children was letting their daughters loose in the world so they could learn things on their own, and it never bothered Bulma much, but for the first time in many years, she felt like a child, and wanted to be comforted.

But she wouldn't be, and would have to deal with her pain alone. Then she looks back at the already fading flames.

Bulma Briefs, a billionaire scientist and the world's most desirable bachelorette, thirty-one years old, had just lost the only good romantic relationship in her life for good now. Now all she has are memories and broken pieces of a love that died years ago. The girl she had been many years ago would be horrified to see her and Yamcha ending up like this, but now she felt very different from what she imagined she would feel.

She had loved and lost, but still, she didn't feel the least bit terrified, or angry, just sad.

“Shit.” Bulma mumbles, after inhaling the smoke of last of her cigarette in her hands, and throws her butt into the embers of a love that once was, and walks away. She had no distance left to run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> damn writing this chapter was so FUN because I felt like Clarisse fucking Lispector (she's like one of brasil's greatest writers) writing all that drama
> 
> and i like reviews very much i would like to know if im pleasing my 3 faithful readers


	11. caught in the moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so.... yea.... i'm back. it took a while bc i was rewriting the previous chapters, and bc english isn't my mother tongue and blablabla i will keep editing and improving the chapters i post until i finish this fic, basically. i aways find something to correct or improve, so i will always edit the chapters lol
> 
> anyways, in these chapters bulma is SO overdramatic, but i had fun writing her freaking out

Life went on, and it was being easier than Bulma had thought it would be. She was still accepting the fact that she wouldn't have a fairy tale happy ending that the sixteen year old Bulma wanted so badly (she should have made the damn wish to the damn dragon when she had the chance), and that her first love would last forever, because life had definitely knocked on her door, and she was pretty sure no one else would love her just for who she was, and that made her a little sad. The money, influence, and power she had was so much that it simply could no longer be separated from her, especially as the years passed, she had become more and more of a public figure. Yamcha had only been a miracle, literally, that probably would not happen again. Now she finally understood why her older sister had never gotten married.

But unlike what she thought when she was younger, Bulma now understood that she is a complete person on her own, that liking is not dominating, that there is nothing wrong with just having fun. And, especially, just because she has lost the one who was probably the love of her life, it doesn’t mean that she won't get involved with anyone else. If she's lucky she might get someone nice to love her.

She could say she was having fun with Vegeta when he wasn't too busy being the most unbearable person in the galaxy, but he definitely doesn't love her. He only loves himself, and after getting to know some things about him that he didn't like to tell, Bulma knew that if she had gone through everything he went through, she wouldn't love anyone but herself either.

At least he didn't seem very interested in her money and influence, as he had been extremely confused by the matter, saying that he was the Prince of All Saiyans blablabla and did not need these things, and Bulma had an uncontrollable urge to laugh. He was the Prince of a population of two and a half people. He would never know what kind of power she has over society on Earth, but she was glad to know that he was not intimidated by everything she represents, unlike all the others. But even so, it was good to have sex with a person who was just as emotionally unavailable as she was, this really spared a lot of headaches.

Headaches she was having with other things. As usual, when things start to go wrong, she turns completely to work, and along with the fact that she had sex to try to have some control, she feels like she's 27 again, except now she only had one partner. And she was getting drunk alone at home, not at a decadent party. Recently Yamcha had even arrived at her house, flying and clearly drunk, ready to make a scene. And what a scene he made.

He started singing in the garden of her house that his dick was public property but his heart was completely hers or any disgusting and stupid shit of the kind. After she completely ignores this horrible part, he starts screaming that he really wanted to go back with her and that he was very sorry for everything. She then went to the balcony of her room to see what had happened, just to roll her eyes when she realized that Yamcha had no intention of leaving. Yamcha was literally screaming for her forgiveness, and she was not happy at all.

“Fuck, let me sleep. I don’t want you back, go bother someone else.” Bulma snapped at him, and from the corner of her eye she could see the light from the right-most room downstairs turning on, and she already knows that Vegeta woke up because of the noise. Fuck, they didn’t need a spectator. "And I don't want to have sex with a guy whose dick is public property, I don't want to get STDs."

“Just use a condom.” Yamcha yells back, and Bulma tries very hard not to start laughing. Yamcha could be really funny when he wanted to. “C’mon Bulma, come back to me, I love you.”

"No. Now go away to have sex with some poor girl, so at least you move on and stop pissing me off."

"And do what you did last time? You were fucking another guy a week later. I don't have the cold blood to do so.” Yamcha says, and despite knowing that he is drunk, she sees red. How _ dare _ he tell her what to do in this situation?

"You CHEATED on me, you _piece of shit_, so how come you tell me you're not cold-blooded enough for that? And by the way, I didn't give my pussy to another guy after we broke up last time, I fucking distributed it! It was practically a charity program, because any basic male of average beauty who appeared in front of me was bestowed with the best pussy of his life! So go _fuck yourself_ and if you don’t like it, go away!” Bulma screams in rage, and as soon as she says that, her parents appear with gaping mouths two balconies away from hers, she flushes with embarrassment right away. She turns the other way just to see Vegeta arms crossed looking as if he regretted going to the window to see what was happening. She then decided it was better to look at Yamcha then. "Anyways, you have no right to complain about what I did or didn't do. So go fuck yourself, and if you show up here again I'll make Vegeta kill you! Right Vegeta?”

Vegeta looks at her and makes a face that makes it clear that he has no intention of doing anything that doesn’t involves training or eating.

“If you do nothing I will make sure to take away your training equipment.”

“If you take away my training equipment I will make sure to let you be killed by the Androids.” Vegeta retorts, and Bulma shows him the middle finger.

"You wouldn't even have to, you would die before you could let me die."

Although she is arguing with Vegeta on her balcony, that seems to be enough for Yamcha to leave, but not before he says she would regret not wanting anything to do with him.

"I won't regret a damn thing. Now leave, and better not come back.” Bulma says, and goes back to her room, snorting.

  
  
  


Three days later Vegeta is in her bed, and he seems about to say something when she gets up, hides her naked body in a robe and lights a cigarette, making him look at her crossly.

“_ What_?” Bulma asks, visibly annoyed by the angry face he was making.

"I didn't think you smoked. When I smelled it on you, I thought it was from your father's cigarette. It stinks, by the way.” Vegeta speaks, in his succinct way, while making a face. He seems to really dislike the smell of the cigarette.

“I don't smoke much. In reality I only smoke sometimes.” She replies, but he doesn't look very convinced. "Anyway, I know you wanted to ask me something before you freaked out about the cigarette."

"Did you really have sex with that many people?" Vegeta asks, and she starts to laugh. “I don't care, I just got curious.”

“I know you don't care.” _Or you care, or else you wouldn't have asked_, Bulma thought, still laughing a little. She was amused by the idea that he cares about these things. "But no, I didn't sleep with that many people. I said that to piss Yamcha off, but there really was a time when I dated more guys, but they were just .... I don't know, transient fun? Something like that. And you, had sex with many people? You never say anything about your personal life.”

"I don't like to talk much about my life. It kind of sucked. Being part of Freeza's extermination army didn't give me much time to do anything but sleep, eat, and kill.” He comments, and wow, his life seems to have been horrible. Bulma feels almost sorry for him. Almost, because he still had done some pretty awful things.

“How horrible. To work, or, I don’t know, to be enslaved like that sounds awful. No wonder why you wanted to kill Freeza so badly. He also destroyed your planet right? It was a smart move for him, although you Saiyans are quite interesting. Anyways, he was an asshole, and thankfully he's dead for good now. I think. I hope nobody brings him back to life. That would suck.”

"You remind me of him a little." Vegeta comments, and Bulma chokes in surprise. What the fuck? Bulma grits her teeth and blushes with anger. Was she really being compared to someone like Freeza? She didn't even know him, but she already knew this wasn't a nice comparison. She couldn't tell if Vegeta was teasing her or just had no idea of basic decency. She had almost forgotten that side of him, cruel, selfish, proud and socially inept. She hated that about him.

"I don't care if I act like an intergalactic tyrant. I want to know what his empire was like. Or what the Saiyan empire was like. Your home planet, in this case.” She says, trying to control her anger and change the subject, throwing herself on the bed beside him. Bulma was curious by nature, and having someone who lived so many different things to tell her how things work outside the Earth is a very rare opportunity, and she would take advantage of that. “How was it like to be a prince? I can't imagine what is like to be part of royalty.”

"Aren't you a princess of this planet?" Vegeta asks, looking genuinely puzzled, and Bulma laughs, and feels more shy than she should. "Don't you keep saying you're the richest and most powerful woman in the world? And that your father owns an empire that you will inherit?”

"Wow, I'm very honored by you thinking I'm a princess, but I'm just a commoner. Dad and I are rich and influential because of Capsule Corp. My father just happened to have invented such a revolutionary technology that gave him lots of money, and I just happened to be a great scientist and manager to expand our ‘empire’.” Bulma explains. She was slightly flushed, because this was actually a big compliment, and she could almost forget that he had dissed her moments before. Why was he so confusing? “We have power because we have money, not the other way around, as it is with royalty. By the way, the royal family of Earth is made up of dogs, but I won't talk about that. But when I speak empire, I mean the company, not a real empire, and I will inherit simply because I'm competent, and in the future I'll pass on the company to someone I trust if I don't have children or if my children are unfit to administer Capsule Corp. I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I am just another commoner.”

It was funny trying to explain the world she lived in to him, and to hear his stories. They were talking more often. Vegeta was weird and an unbearable son of a bitch for most of the time, and he brought to life something bad about her that Bulma hated, but incredibly, he also brought to life things she loved, and which she thought she had lost long ago.

For the first time, Bulma wondered how this was going to end, or if she really wanted it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is supposed to be in the funny side, but honestly most of the humor came from the slangs and the way i wrote it in portuguese, so maybe part of the jokes were lost in translation. did you guys find it remotely funny? pls tell me in the comments


	12. give him some lip reading to do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has some references to jaco the galactic patrolman, bc i really like akira toriyama's silly stuff (in this fic there will be references to dr slump as well lol)
> 
> anyways the title of the chapter is based on the song lip reading by jolin tsai (i'm like, obssessed w my chapter titles, even tho the actual title of the fanfic fucking sucks). in mandarin, which is the language of the song, lip reading can be read either as "lip reading" or as "language of the lips" (kissing) so yea

Surprisingly, Bulma realizes that she kind of like Vegeta's company. Besides sex, obviously. And besides 90% of the time, when he is basically incommunicable because he is simply too revolting for Bulma to handle. She finds herself listening to the stories he has to tell, asking more about him and answering questions about life on earth and everything she knows. As he recounts how vast and full of horrible people the outer space is, she occasionally finds herself staring at him intensely or laughing at the stories.

They even go out once in a while, when Vegeta is too injured to continue training and calm enough to be tolerable, and when she isn't drowning in work. Once she had raced with him, she on a motorbike designed and builded by herself, and he was flying, even though he was injured. Bulma lost, obviously, but she came closer to him than she had expected.

She had also taken him once or twice to her giant apartment in West City, not far from her own home. Bulma had bought it when she was in her early twenties for more privacy, but it quickly became clear that living with her parents was much more comfortable, because it was literally on the same propriety as her workplace, and because the mansion she lived in was so big that she had plenty of privacy anyway.

One day, she tells him to follow her, and flies to an old acquaintance's island, near what is left of East City. Bulma knew that old Oomori, the owner of the island, had died a few years ago, and all the structures built there were basically in ruins, but this place has a wonderful view, and reminds her of her childhood, the enchantment with the unknown, her sister and freedom. That island reminded Bulma that she could be whoever she wanted to be.

“What place is this?” Vegeta asks, grumpy, kicking a rock near his foot. Bulma picks up a flower on the way, and approaches a grave.

“The house of a friend of the family.” Bulma puts the purple flower on the grave in front of her in respect. Tights was very fond of the old man, so the least Bulma could do was to be polite. “He died a few years ago. Some company wanted to buy the island to build a resort or something like it, but I didn't let them and bought it back. This is a good place to spend some time with no one bothering you. And the view of the sunset is really beautiful. Follow me, I'll show you.”

Bulma goes up the familiar path, with Vegeta following her, until they come to a rock on the top of a steep hill, where Bulma sits watching the sea, and he quickly sits beside her. She looks at the landscape, and then at him, and in this beautiful, secluded spot, Bulma can clearly see that he looks as alone as she feels. It’s funny that he had led a life completely different from hers, but in the end he is as lonely as she is.

Vegeta is also completely disconnected from anything other than conflict. He doesn't know how handsome he is, who can be more than a soldier, that having fun is part of life, and she feels a little sorry for him. He had everything to be a better person, but he seemed to make the same mistakes every time, and it’s a vicious cycle of frustration that only made him worse in every way. She identified with this aspect of him as well, because she too makes the same mistakes every time, and sometimes she feels like she burn bridges, screws everything and learns nothing from the mess she made.

After looking at the landscape in silence for a while, Bulma can't help but ask questions.

"Do you think you're going to die? By the Androids, I mean.”

“No. I'm not training so much for nothing.” Vegeta speaks without a second's hesitation, and Bulma envies his unshakable certainty.

“What's the hell like?” Bulma asks him suddenly. She didn't like the idea of dying. "No, you have never mentioned that you went to hell, but since you died and Goku confirmed that there is a paradise and a hell, I just assumed you went there."

“It’s bad. A never ending sea of creatures fought me, and I always lost to them. But I didn't stay there long. And it wasn't too different from my life so far either.”

Bulma laughed openly, and he glanced at her, but she didn't care. Good for him, behaving like a monster and getting punished for it. But that wasn't the kind of hell she imagined, with torture and demons cooking living people for eternity. Maybe it was a personal kind of hell? If she had one, she could already imagine she would be listening to people talking shit about her for eternity and she could never answer, or something like that.

“Do you think I would end up there?”

"I don't know much about you." Vegeta replied with a shrug and Bulma is surprised to realize that she had really barely talked about her personal life with him. She kept hearing about his life, asking questions, talking about stuff she knew, but had barely spoken about herself.

  
  


“That's true. I never talk about my life to anyone, since when people realize who I am, they treat me differently, but I think I'll tell a few things. For you.” Vegeta seemed to be paying close attention, and Bulma made a mental note that he really is curious and ready to learn when given the opportunity. "Then let me introduce myself. I'm Bulma Briefs, I'm thirty-one years old, and I'm the richest woman in the world.

"I like strawberries, I met an alien on this island when I was a child, I have several awards as a scientist, one award as the 3rd most beautiful woman on Earth and I invented the Dragon Radar. The Dragon Radar is a device that allows me to search for the dragon balls, and it’s the reason why we are talking here today. I found Goku with it, and the rest is history." Bulma thinks she talked a lot about herself. That was probably more information she had given Vegeta than she had in all the years they had known each other. "And I'm not a princess, by the way, so I'm far below your station for you to marry me, I'm sorry. But seriously, asking me that did wonders for my ego, I can't deny." She ends up holding back from laughing, and he scowls at her until he realizes the last part was a joke, so she allows herself to laugh.

  
  


"And you think you can go to hell because...?" Vegeta seemes to want to change the subject, so she just keeps up with him.

“So, I put some powerful weapons in the market. I spent some time studying and creating new weapons, and I put some new ones in the market. They weren't the best I had developed, but they were far more destructive than the ones they had in the market.” Bulma gazes at the horizon as the sun is just setting. It was easy to say these things to Vegeta, he's evil, and he won't judge her. He has no right to judge her. “I hadn't even thought about it much, but when I realized it, I had made a fortune in just months of sales of the weapons, and as soon as I realized what that meant, I took all my weapons off the market.

"It was a little too late, because my technology had already been copied by others in the war industry. Because of me, the deaths in armed conflicts on the planet increased significantly, and the percentage of people who die when shot by the weapons with my technology it's much higher than normal weapons." Bulma was sad just thinking about it. Would she have become death, as another scientist tormented about the destruction he caused had said? She hoped not. How could someone's hasty judgment affect the lives of so many people so negatively? “I tried to reverse my actions, and I donated all the money I had made from the guns to NGOs that helped people affected by my actions, but it's certainly not enough. It will never be.”

"Then why did you put it on the market? You should’ve known what you were dealing with.” Vegeta said, and he didn't seem shaken at all by her words.

“I knew what I was dealing with. But I was scared and paranoid, so I made several guns and put them in the market, without thinking too much about the long-term consequences. I wanted to feel less powerless, so I started making weapons to protect myself.”

“Protect yourself from who?”

“From you, obviously.” Bulma winks at him, who only raises a eyebrow in silence, a clear sign that he wanted her to say more. "I knew you were coming to Earth, so I got scared and started thinking that you would arrive early and I would have nothing to protect myself, so I made some weapons. I was out of my mind that year. I-almost-killed-a-few-people level of crazy. Well, I don’t think that this is much for you, but for me it is.”

“It isn’t. But how did you know I was coming to Earth? I thought only warriors knew.”

"Who do you think warned the warriors? I was there when Goku's brother came to Earth. It was definitely not one of the best experiences in my life.” Bulma continued to stare at the sunset. The orange of the sky dissipates, and the sky begins to turn purple. "I think I did more things than you think. You wanted to become immortal didn't you? If you had been smarter and less aggressive perhaps you would have succeeded.”

"If I had been smarter I would have killed you earlier." He answers simply, and Bulma feigns indignation, but can't hold back and laughs openly, and he gives a rare smile. This was a bit fucked up, but she likes to tease him, it's amusing. Funny, even. In a weird way, he was funny too. Not that she didn't think Vegeta couldn't kill her if he wanted to, but it would be _very_ stupid to do so, considering she can do things for him that no one else can. And he seems to like being teased and teasing her as well.

"You should stop hitting first and asking later. On Earth you wasted a pretty good chance of getting information about the dragon balls. Honestly, capturing me and forcing me to help you find the Namekians’ dragon balls would be the smartest thing to do. Anyway, your useless ass is alive today because I intervened in your life, and brought Kuririn, Gohan and Goku to Namekusei, so you're welcome.” They both knew he was only alive thanks to the Earthlings' appearance on Namek, but Bulma didn't want to go into detail to mock him. Maybe later. She had already fulfilled her daily quota of laughing at his expense.

“I find you like Freeza more and more.” _ Again with this shit _, Bulma thought. Vegeta was very fond of this low blow. "Ruining lives for money and security, doing favors no one has asked for and charging for them."

_ Son of a bitch_, she thought. Why did he have to screw it up always? It seemed that Vegeta had two people inside him, one she liked, and one she didn't. Bulma looked up from the already fading sun and gave him an almost serene, burning gaze.

“I wonder who is more like him, me or you?” She asks, not moving, still looking where the sun is disappearing.

She looks at the ruins of East City. _ He did this. _ She tells herself. _ Don’t forget what he can do. _But somehow, she thinks that maybe he can do good, if given the opportunity.

"If it's any consolation, you're lucky Freeza didn't hear about the capsule technology. He would have invaded this useless mud ball just to have you and your dad on his team of scientists.”

Strangely, Bulma feels that Vegeta is trying to compliment her, and this notion is very odd to her. But she decides to work with it, and smiles at him.

“It isn’t.” She answers, thinking that maybe Vegeta has more potential than she thought. And she kind of wanted him to get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's another chapter. idk while i try to be very honest when writing, there's some sweetness underneath, you know?
> 
> anyways why am i the only person in this god forsaken website (maybe fandom?) that describes bulma as being taller than vegeta? what do you guys have against short men???
> 
> so thank you for reading, and happy new year everybody! let's begin 2020, and try not to have a shitty year!


	13. in my fantasies you dream about me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was kind of inspired by "emotion" by carly rae jepsen

Bulma is not sure why, but Vegeta keeps coming back to her, and she is not someone to say no to that. She can't say where their relationship is going, but with the Androids imminent arrival in just over a year, she guesses that they will figure themselves out after that.

However, things take an unexpected turn when, in one of her energy production tests, one equipment in Bulma’s lab blows while she is inside the lab. In retrospect, it was very stupid of her not giving the appropriate time for the energy to stabilize when trying to increase its potency, so obviously everything would blow up in her face, and that's exactly what happened. Although she had a broken arm (luckly, it was the left arm), a brain concussion that fucked her up badly, bruises all over her body and had inhaled a dangerous amount of smoke, she hadn't died. So far, so good.

When she woke up three days after the accident feeling only a slight headache, Bulma was shocked to learn from her father that her mother and Vegeta were the ones who had pulled her out of the rubble that once was her laboratory, completely unconscious and bleeding from the nose (the concussion that she had was genuinely nasty). Fortunately, her lab had an advanced security system and had called the ambulance automatically as soon as the accident happened, but her father says that without the help of Vegeta and her mother she would probably be much worse or even dead, and Bulma didn't like much the feeling of owing her life to Vegeta.

Bulma spends another four days in the hospital until she is discharged, and after crossing a sea of photographers trying to get her attention, she starts to feel nauseous in the back of the car. It seems like she cannot think coherently, and when she arrives at her home, she promptly passes out on the plushy carpet in the living room.

Back at the hospital, she doesn't wake up until the next day. The doctor says that the concussion had been more serious than it first appeared from the initial brain tests, and that she should stay another week resting in the hospital, just in case if the post-concussion syndrome gets worse, she doesn't pass out again, has another concussion and dies. Apparently, if someone has a second concussion when not completely recovered from the first one, the person will die.

Bulma's brain gradually returns to normal during that week, and after five days in the hospital she is dying of boredom and counting the days to return home. Upon arriving home after that excruciating week, she jumps straight to her bed and then realizes that Vegeta is sitting on her balcony. She looks at him, waiting for him to enter the room.

“You are way too fragile.” He says, impassive, while touching her healing arm. Bulma couldn't identify whether he was being an asshole or was just worried. “But you still are tougher than I thought you would be. That explosion made the whole house shake.”

“I was particularly stupid this time.” Bulma comments, while watching him sit on her bed. Obviously he missed her, somehow, and she really wanted to make up for the awful past few weeks. “At least we're even now, since you kind of saved me.”

Vegeta had also had an accident in the gravity room some time ago, which resulted in some burns and a few broken bones, and if Bulma hadn’t come to help him and hadn’t turned off the artificial gravity system, he would probably be a lot worse off than he was when she found him. In fact, he got hurt very often, either by putting his body on the verge of collapse or breaking the technological devices the wrong way. And everytime after he injures himself, he is either angrier than usual, or very calm. He's so strange, and Bulma can't help but feel like Vegeta has a million people living inside his head.

He gets a little closer, and she likes the courteous way they act when they are around each other, and when Vegeta comes and kisses her, she genuinely doesn't care about anything else, at least for now. It would be a good way to relax after spending weeks in the hospital.

In the days that follow, Bulma tries to get back to her normal work schedule after suffering a reasonably serious accident. She has headaches more often than usual due to the concussion, and she feels very nauseous at least once a day, and sometimes even vomits. Bulma thanks the heavens for never having a concussion before, because the effects of the post-concussion can be worse than almost any other recovery she has had, and the doctor had warned that these effects could last between weeks and months.

The weeks become one month, and then another, and it feels like the side effects of the concussion are not over, and it’s taking so long. Then Bulma realizes that she hasn't had her period in almost two months, and that the symptoms of pregnancy are dangerously similar to the post-concussion syndrome. After realizing this fact she tries not to panic because there is no way she is pregnant, she has been taking her contraceptives normally. Except when she got injured she spent two weeks in the fucking hospital and didn't take her contraceptive in that period and holy fuck she had sex before having taken the contraceptive after she got out of the hospital.

To make matters worse, she realizes all of this during her working hours, among her fellow scientists at the Capsule Corporation. Bulma runs as discreetly as she can to her home (fortunately the headquarters of the Capsule Corporation is on the same property as her house, separated by only a few meters and a very large wall). She enters the house without wasting a second, ignoring her mother who asks why she looks like she saw a ghost, and going straight to her private lab.

Upon entering, she locks the door so nobody can bother her (if Vegeta wants to ask her anything, he can go to her father). Bulma looks for her blood-drawing materials, takes a sample of her own blood as if she was a crazy scientist and starts analyzing the blood sample without even stanching the blood on her arm, praying to all possible gods that she is not pregnant, because that it would be a disaster.

But she is pregnant. After analyzing the sample, Bulma wants to cry, because now she is truly fucked. How will she tell her parents that she got pregnant from the crazy alien who was staying at their house? How is she going to explain to her friends that oops, she was having an affair with the guy who wanted to kill them? Damn, how is she going to tell Vegeta that she’s pregnant?

She falls backwards in her chair, wondering how she got there. Was there no other man who could have impregnated her? She dated Yamcha for FIFTEEN years and she didn’t become pregnant. Bulma marvels at her bad luck. She had been so stupid. She was always so smart, but it seemed like everytime she liked some man, all the neurons in her brain shut down. Yes, she liked Vegeta, and this was the first time that she had the courage to admit it to herself.

Being a mother wasn’t really at the top of her list of priorities. She had thought about it before, and even wanted to be a mother eventually, but she never had an opportunity for it, since she and Yamcha lived on a tightrope, Vegeta was batshit crazy and the other men in her life were not worth two minutes of her attention. The timing wasn’t great, as the world was about to end (?) in just under a year, and her child's father was far from being a decent person.

But none of that matters, she can handle this alone. There is nothing that Bulma does not face head-on, and for someone who has almost died several times, has already crossed the outer space, and is a renowned scientist, raising a child must be a piece of cake.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur. She goes back to work, dines watching TV in the living room, reads company reports, and doesn't speak to anyone for the rest of the day. Her brain is figuring out what to do, and Bulma kind of wants to drink and smoke a cigarette, but she knows she can't.

Bulma goes to her bedroom, where she combs her hair. It had grown a lot since the last time she cut. She was sitting on the bed, waiting for Vegeta to arrive. By the pattern of the meetings they had, he was supposed to go see her that same night. Bulma was not a fool, she knew that as soon as she said she was pregnant, everything between them would end. In a strange way, Bulma thought he was a little scared. Vegeta didn't have the courage to build something with her, like a scared and angry little boy that she knew he was at heart.

But despite that, she wanted to spend one last night with him. Bulma had really come to like him, with flaws and all. Okay, without some flaws, because Vegeta could be unbearable sometimes. She really saw potential in him. If he was less arrogant, bossy, proud and clueless, they could go so _ well _ together. But none of that matters.

When Vegeta enters her room a little later she gives a rare genuine and brilliant smile, mixed with a little sadness. She does what she wants to do in an uncharacteristic silence, but she likes to touch it and be touched.

Bulma really liked the feeling of being on top of a man as dangerous as Vegeta. Knowing that he liked to let her in control did wonders for her ego. This man could blow up planets and destroy empires, but he let her bounce on him while he held her, and she lets her head fall back slightly in pleasure at feeling what she can do to him. She definitely wants to keep that feeling in her memory.

After they were done, Vegeta went to get up after talking to her for a while, probably to leave, but Bulma didn't want him to leave. Not tonight.

“Stay.” He looked at her with a strange face, and took a step toward the door. He had recently slept in her room, but in general he went back to his room. “Please.”

She never said “please” for anything or anyone, and it seemed to change his mind. Vegeta sat beside her on the bed, and Bulma smiled at him.

Her bed was stupidly big, so in their sleep the two of them didn't even bump into each other. Bulma wakes up uncharacteristically early, and watches Vegeta sleep for a few minutes, thinking that this was for the best. She was getting very involved with him, and if she hadn't become pregnant, she don't know how it was going to end, but it would definitely be more brutal when they had to go on separate paths if it continued. Bulma is the kind of person who believes that being vulnerable is the bravest thing someone could do in a cruel world like the one they live in, but a part of her is scared of getting hurt.

She watches him in silence. She wonders what he dreams of. In her fantasies he dreams of her, likes to spend time with her and his feelings won't allow him to ever forget about her.

She is lost in thought when he wakes up. Even before he has time to wake up properly, she starts talking.

“I have something to tell you.” Vegeta is clearly still a little groggy from sleep, but Bulma can see that she already has his attention. “I'm pregnant. And the child is yours, obviously. But don’t worry. I won’t need you for anything, unless you want to.”

Vegeta pales, and it looks like she punched him in the face. Bulma had never seen him caught so off guard. He mumbles something about having to train and think, and leaves the room at a humanly impossible speed. Bulma just takes a deep breath, because it’s just getting started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now the fic is going down on a tumultuous path, because this is the moment they realize that they dont know what the fuck theyre doing.
> 
> you know, while i was writing this part of the fic (the beginning of bulma and vegetas relationship until they get together for real), i had one goal in mind: i wanted to make a believable story about two people kind of falling in love without ever stating that these characters are falling or have fallen in love
> 
> anyways, some people said that they really liked my version of bulma, and i am really happy to know this, but i got curious: what made you guys like this version of her?


	14. I saw your potencial without seeing credentials

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally im back. it only took me a quarantine to get back on my bullshit
> 
> sorry i took so long i was doing.... ugh.... something?
> 
> anyways here's the chapter i hope it doesn't suck

Vegeta vanishes for more than a month after Bulma tells him the news of her pregnancy. He acted exactly as she had predicted, and she can't help but find depressing and hilarious the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself out of pride, to battle with whoever was needed, but he had ran away at the mere prospect of a child who hadn't even been born.

The news of her pregnancy surprises her parents, although they were not at all surprised to learn that she had had an affair with Vegeta.

But other than that Bulma goes to prenatal care, and starts buying books about motherhood like crazy, and she reads them at a terrifying speed. The baby doesn't move much, and for that she is grateful, since if he starts kicking, Bulma has the distinct impression that it would hurt more than it normally would.

She was also not very comfortable telling her team at the Capsule Corporation that she was pregnant, as this was obviously going to break the myth that she was a loner genius, but there was no way to hide the fact, especially when her belly seemed to grow so fast. Bulma tries to be as impassive as possible, but she really is afraid of losing the respect of everyone in the company, after all she was just a woman who pretended to be tougher than she really was to be an authority figure in a cruel world, and being pregnant was quite a reminder that she was just human like everyone else.

But in a way all of this just motivates her to continue her energy research. She had brought research to her entire team recently, and made it the priority of the team of the best scientists at Capsule Corp. The hours of testing and hypothesis studies were already beginning to pay off, and their research would be concluding a before she gave birth, as she had already done most of the research by herself in the past two years. The prospect of doing something to leave the world a little better cheered up Bulma.

On a night when Bulma is alone eating a plate of salad at the living room table while reading the book Maternity for Single Mothers, Vegeta appears as if he hadn't desappeared for over a month and a half, doing whatever the fuck he did when he was away (probably training). Bulma looks up with a raised eyebrow as he spends a good few minutes in the kitchen, probably eating all the food available in the house.

“So, have you become a Super Saiyan?” Bulma asks, full of irony and contempt, as soon as he leaves the kitchen with a one-liter bottle of milk in his hand. This is kind of a forbidden topic with him, since he hasn't succeeded yet, even though he's tried so hard for the past two years, but she really doesn't care about that now.

Vegeta looks at her with fire in his eyes, but Bulma is not intimidated. She is never afraid of anything, and it won't be now that she will be. She’s Bulma fucking Briefs and she eats danger for breakfast.

He leaves and for that she is grateful, because she doesn't want to see him anytime soon. During the following days Bulma avoids him as much as possible, and when she sees him, she changes direction in order to not bump into him, and she has the impression that he is also running away from her. But he seemed almost out of his own mind. She had no idea what was going on in his head, and she doesn't want to know.

It doesn't take more than three weeks for Vegeta to leave again, apparently to find peace of mind and try to become a Super Saiyan without the help of the training apparatus she and her father had made, since, according to him, "they are useless and fucking suck."

When he comes back again, Bulma was six months pregnant, and as soon as he sees her, he kisses her, and even though he is dirty, she doesn't reject him, because apparently she is an idiot. One thing leads to another and they go to her room, while Vegeta literally rips off her clothes, one thing leads to another and she is under him moaning, while he says filthy things in her ear, and one thing leads to another and the two of them are sitting next to each other in the bed, not knowing what to say. In general they have ridiculously better chemistry than anyone would ever expect from them, and the conversation flows surprisingly easy between the two, but not this time.

“So... Why did you come back?”  _ And kissed me _ , she completes mentally.

“I reached the Super Saiyan form.” Vegeta answers, as if that’s a completely satisfactory answer, and Bulma looks at him dumbfounded. She feels so many emotions at the same time that she feels comfortably numb. What does that mean? She assumes that something will change after that.

She looks at her own already  protuberant belly, and wonders if Vegeta will have any space in his life for their child. Bulma doesn't know what it's like to grow up without a father, but she imagines it must be sad. It was even more stupid of her to have sex with him again, she decides, getting up from the bed. Now was the time to set boundaries, and even that she hadn't been able to do properly.

Bulma and Vegeta spend the next two months in a strange stalemate. He's in a state of mind that’s at the very least... questionable, because his arrogance seems to have reached a peak never seen before, and Bulma was not enjoying it very much. That was a trait he always seemed to have in excess, and now it was even worse. It was annoying, because he was being an asshole most of the time.

Between her appointments to the doctor, working at home and at the Capsule Corp., trying to choose her child's name and other things, Bulma ends up doing what isn’t sensible again, and she has sex with him two more times, showing that she really doesn't have even the slightest amount of self-control.

It takes a while for them to really talk again (because he was being too much of an asshole for Bulma to handle), and more for them to kiss (this time it was in the garden at the back of her house, and Bulma practically runs away from him as soon as he realizes that she shouldn't be doing it, like the stupid sixteen-year-old that she is deep down), and even more for them to go to bed again.

She tries to calm down and not think of it as a mistake, saying that if he only wants her for her pussy, then she only wants him for his dick. But that's a lie, and when he comes back to her and she can't say no to him, Bulma is devastated by her own stupidity as soon as the sex is over, and goes to her bathroom. For the first time she sheds a few tears for Vegeta, and decides that it’s enough already, and that they have to figure themselves out.

She feels so  _ stupid _ , because it seems that every time she likes someone for real, her brain collapses and she can't make a single reasonable decision. Who was she even trying to fool this entire time? She wanted a chance with him from the beginning, and now she was making a fool of herself because of her own lack of courage. She knew there was something there, that they had potential.

The next day Bulma goes to his room to clear things up. If she can’t have all of him, she doesn’t want to have him at all. She's pregnant with him, and yet it doesn't look like he wants anything from her, and for the first time in years Bulma wants something more with someone. She wants him to grow, and be better.

“I don't want to keep going round and round. I really want something, and if you don't, then we won't have anything else between us.” Bulma speaks, and Vegeta's face looks frozen in a frown. “I can help you. Improving. Because the way you are now, you’re impossible to handle. You can be better than that. If you stopped being so arrogant-”

“You sure have a lot of confidence to assume that I am interested in you.” He's even more rude than usual, but Bulma doesn't flinch for even a second. She knows that showing vulnerability to Vegeta is losing to him. “But I don't need you or anything you have to offer me. Did you really think I would just play pretend with you?”

“Play pretend? Do I look like I play pretend? This is not playing pretend, this is living. Not everything in life is about fighting and subduing.” She tells him, just as rudely as he did. Bulma is not someone to listen to insults and not respond in the same measure. But that is enough of an answer for her, who leaves her room as quickly as she entered.

When she leaves him, Bulma doesn't even feel like crying. When she closes the door to his room, and goes anywhere away from Vegeta, and hears the sound of things breaking from his room, but she really doesn't want to know.

Fuck, she has always been so bad with men. Every time she is the one to take the leap of faith and is the one who tries to make the first step towards a relationship, she always is rejected. Why did she even think this time would be different? She must be awful, because when the man approaches her first, things usually go much smoother.

She goes to the kitchen and grabs a bottle of wine, and goes to her room. Technically a pregnant woman can drink moderately, so she starts drinking to calm down. She drinks, and starts to think about her problems. Her boy problems.

She likes Vegeta, but she has no longer enough heart to lose her mind for him. There was not much left for him, because when their relationship started, Bulma’s heart was already hardened by all the years of a failed relationship with Yamcha, and her heart didn’t have time to heal properly before she dived in a relationship with Vegeta. Even though it is good for now to avoid having her heart broken in a thousand pieces by him, Bulma has closed herself so much to not be hurt that she wonders if in the future she will love again, or if she will just need a few seasons to let others touch their feelings like before. Bulma wonders when her heart had turned to stone, because even she hadn't noticed.

But she definitely feels stupid. What did she think was going to happen? That he would feel something for her and that he would be brave enough to change his ways to be with her? Did the connection between them happen only inside her head? Had she imagined the man who was beneath all of Vegeta's demons and flaws? And the worst was that Bulma had no one to blame but herself.

When she realizes, she had drunk the whole bottle of wine. Fuck. This shouldn’t had happened. That’s why she hasn’t been drinking. Her relationship with alcohol isn’t very healthy, and she lost control. Bulma wants to cry. She feels like a piece of shit who isn’t fit to be a mother. She drags herself to the bed, and wants nothing more than for this day to be over.

Vegeta leaves the next day to whatever hell hole he has been in recently, and Bulma feels somewhat relieved. With him away it would be easier for her feelings, and she hoped he wouldn't been around for a while. But as soon as he leaves, another man in his life returns unexpectedly.

  
  


A week after Vegeta disappeared from the map, Yamcha appears at her home. It was a sunny Sunday, and when she opened the door, Bulma's mouth gaped when she saw him there. She quickly asks him to come in, and this time she has an unusual feeling that Yamcha's visit will not end in yet another unnecessary courtship. It was strange, but Bulma had had almost no resentment, and even though she was not a particularly resentful person, she thought she would be a little more furious and shocked to see him. But she felt nothing, except surprise.

As soon as he enters, Yamcha begins to speak.

“Damn, I really didn't expect to see you pregnant.”

“Why? Does motherhood not suit me? Anyways, come in, I think we have a lot to talk about.” She provokes, while guiding him to the well-known path to the parapet of her house.

“It matches you more than I would have imagined. In fact, you look pretty. Is this what people call ‘glowing’? I don’t know. But you are not exactly the type of woman I would imagine pregnant so easily.” Yamcha sayss, giving a half smile. “We were together for so long, and I never thought about that possibility. But let me guess. The father is Vegeta, right?”

Bulma blushes more violently than she expected, and sits on a chair on the mansion's porch, and Yamcha sits across from her, with a table separating the two.

“Is it that obvious?” She asks, giving an embarrassed laugh.

“Not really, you just have a consistently bad taste for men. Except me, of course.” He says smiling, and the two laugh openly. “But seriously, with me out of the picture I knew it was only a matter of time before something happened between you two. You are very consistent with your thing for dark, muscular men and, above all, with a bad boy attitude. In the case of Vegeta, a sociopathic attitude.”

“What can I do? I like to put bad boys where they deserve it.”  _ Which is between my legs. _ Bulma completes it mentally.

“Which is between your legs.” He completes, as if reading his mind, and she lets out a noise that is a mixture between laughing and a choking.

“My god, no!” Bulma had forgotten how well Yamcha knows her, but tries to deny it anyway. “I meant that I like to show who is bigger and better. Bigger in the non-literal sense, obviously.”

“Literally, in the case of Vegeta.” Yamcha speaks, and Bulma has to control herself not to laugh anymore, and gives him a serious look, even though her eyes are shining with amusement. She had also forgotten how much he made her laugh. “Sorry, I'm going to stop making these jokes, even though I can make a million more, and still be funny. But you really are a few inches taller than him.”

“I know. It is strange to be the taller person. It's nice, actually, but I've never been the taller person before.” She starts to digress, and looks at Yamcha. It was so strange, she had loved him so much, given everything to him, and now Bulma doesn't feel anything anymore. Sympathy and friendship, yes, but none of those astounding feelings that once surrounded her heart. “We were so good together. Me and you, I mean. What happened?”

Yamcha takes a deep breath, avoiding looking at her, and staring at the horizon.

“I don’t know. Looking back we have never been so in tune.” He says, and Bulma is sad, even though she knows he's right. “We were good friends. But maybe it was a bad idea for us to be lovers.”

“It just felt so right for us to be together. I felt that the universe had given the answer that you were the one for me.”

“Maybe I'm still the one for you.” Yamcha comments, and Bulma raises an eyebrow as if to say 'as if'. “Like a friend. Not every kind of love has to involve sex.”

She nods, and when they hug, Bulma wants to cry. She had missed him.

The two make small talk for a while, until Yamcha asks the question that Bulma doesn't want to answer.

“And you and Vegeta, how are things between you two?” Yamcha asks innocently, and Bulma takes a deep breath.

“I don’t know. He makes me confused, and I never quite know what he wants from me.” She speaks, looking at the sky. “I’ve decided to wait until you guys beat the Androids before I take any definitive action. But I admit it, I'm scared. Not of the Androids, obviously, but of being a mother.”

“Why would you be afraid of that? You are the most competent person I know. And also the bravest.”

“I am afraid of not being a decent mother, because even though I am competent, it doesn’t mean that I will be good at everything.” Bulma says, and she is happy to have someone to vent with. “Besides, I thought Goku was the bravest person you knew.”

“Goku doesn't count. He doesn't even have half his brain working to be afraid of anything.” Bulma laughs at Yamcha's speech, because despite everything, he's right. “Seriously. I have never seen anyone so willing to face everything that was put in their way, even when knowing the consequences if everything went wrong. You never gave up on anything, and in the end everything would always work out, somehow, so why would it be different this time?”

“I don't know, it's a new and somewhat scary challenge. This is unlike anything I've ever done. I will be responsible for a tiny human, this is a totally different responsibility from what I’m used to.” Bulma confesses, and after a few seconds of silence, she decides to change the subject. “But what about your life? I heard that you are dating. Again.”

“Bulma, I'm a convinced bachelor. I don't date, I take a ride.” Yamcha speaks, and Bulma's mouth open. Things had really changed, because half a life ago Yamcha would never have dreamed of doing something like this.

“Wow. I never thought that I would hear it from you. Didn't you want to get married when you were younger? I remember you told me this when we were dating, like 15 years ago.” She's laughing lightly when she says that. It was a funny memory.

“And yet here we are. It's just that if it didn't work with you, it won't work with anyone else. If even you couldn't be understanding, I don’t think anyone else would be.”

“People can be more understanding than you think. Seriously, I don't think you should give up on having a serious relationship forever because of this, because I am not a pantheon of patience and understanding.”

“You really aren't.” And the two laugh at that. “But anyways, when will the baby be born? Your belly is huge.”

“Next month. Time passed by so fast.” Bulma replies, rubbing her belly protectively, which was a completely new side of her. She had never been protective of anything before. “Speaking of time, are you training for the..... Cataclysm that will happen in six months?”

“I haven't trained much. Honestly, after everything that happened, either the guys can do it or they can't. I don't think my help will make much difference.” Yamcha comments, and Bulma feels bad for him. It is so unfair that some people will simply be better than others naturally, and certain things will never come to them, humans, as they come to Goku and Vegeta, no matter how much they train.

“It's unfair. Being better simply because you were born that way, and not because you dedicated yourself to getting better.” She speaks without thinking, and Yamcha chuckles.

“You have nothing to complain about. You are naturally brilliant, you are like.... the Saiyans of science. Or not, I don't think they are naturally the strongest people in the galaxy…” He says jokingly, but Bulma could feel that he was slightly bitter, but she can't blame him. She really has it all.

“Freeza? Vegeta said that that lizard never trained, he was just a very strong monster naturally.” Bulma answers.

“You are the Freeza of science then.” Yamcha decides, and between their laughter, Bulma nods.

"’Freeza of science’, holy shit Yamcha. What kind of legacy is that?” She says, still laughing, a little incredulous.

The two talk all afternoon, talking about life, the universe and everything. Bulma's mom shows up to offer them food, her dad catches up on baseball with Yamcha, and they eat some more. Bulma was eating like a pig, but for some reason she was not putting on weight, she had even lost weight. She wonders if this has to do with the fact that her son is half alien.

When Yamcha leaves, Bulma feels better. She could have lost a boyfriend, but she had gained a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly i like yamcha. like, he did some shitty stuff, but so did bulma and vegeta, bc there are no real villains in this fic the villains are the characters themselves and their shitty decisions
> 
> anyways translating this chapter was a bummer bc i wrote it originally using a lot of idiomatic expressions, that didn't translate at all to english, and I'm so pissed bc of it bc even though i tried to translate the meaning, it just isn't the same
> 
> well whatever, i would appreciate if you guys shared your thoughts abt this fic xoxo


	15. I said I'm evil, therefore I am

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, i've never watched the dragon ball anime. i've seen bits on tv when i was a kid (mainly the majin boo saga that played on repeat in the morning cartoons). but man, i didn't like AT ALL the majin boo arc. i liked gohan's life at school, and the tournament, but when the whole majin boo thing started it was so dreadfully BORING, that even though i was watching one episode a day it was boring.
> 
> SO, i never watched the dragon ball anime, because i just KNEW it was going to suck, because i thought it was boring when i was like, 9. and since i had a long history of watching anime and reading manga, i knew that the manga was certainly better bc of the way animes were made back then, with the anime being very slow paced and having tons of filler
> 
> so, i kind of don't know shit what happened in the filler episodes between the namekusei arc (the namek arc for those of you that hadn't watched the brazilian version) and the androids arc. i kind of knew some things, but nothing major. so i wrote this based solely on the manga and i stole 1 or 2 ideas from dbz abriged, but honestly i had no idea that some shit had happened
> 
> when my boyfriend said to me that vegeta goes to space (!) after discovering that bulma was pregnant or something like that i was like "but... in the manga is heavily implied that she kicked him out of the house bc he was annoying her, what the fuck" and like he knew the baby so at least he had to at least had seen trunks once, so i thought the whole space thing was very weird. like obviously vegeta is not very good at dealing with emotions but SPACE TRAVELLING?? what the fuck guys??? like he could just fly away to antartica any time, he didn't need to go to space to get away from everybody, and he would still be able to go buy bread whenever he felt like it......
> 
> anyways the point is: i havent watched the anime so everything in this fic is based on what i had interpreted what happened when i first read, so less space shenanigans, and more fights and bulma and vegeta being assholes to each other bc they don't how to handle things like adults!

To Bulma, the process of giving birth was absolutely awful.

Her belly was huge, and she was basically sitting up every two minutes when standing up because her feet just hurt that much. But despite that, her obstetrician had said that she would give birth over a week from now, so her parents had traveled to a very important business conference, and she had stayed behind looking after the Capsule Corporation. Bulma knew it was better not to work so close to childbirth, but this was a delicate situation, and the company wouldn't work properly with her and her father completely absent. And there was also the fact that she is kind of completely addicted to working, so she wouldn't be able to stop completely even if her life literally depended on it.

It was late afternoon, and Bulma was reading a pile of reports on Capsule Corp new environmental policy, when she felt a volume of water between her legs, and she didn't need to be a genius (which she is) to deduce what happened. Her water has broken. She was stunned for a few seconds, and then jumped up, calling her obstetrician to say that her water had broken, and that she was going to the hospital right now. She cursed her bad luck about her pregnancy at work, and said it politely to her secretary.

"Jane, how are you? Please cancel all my appointments for next week. Or rather, next month. Maybe the next three months? Wait, I don’t think I have any appointment after next week. Anyway, I went into labor and I am now going to the hospital to give birth to a child or die trying.” Her secretary's face immediately went pale, but Bulma kept talking. “Oh, and you can take this week off, god knows I'm not going to do anything for the next few days."

She offered to take Bulma to the hospital, but Bulma promptly refused. This was literally the worst time for this to happen, since her parents were away, and she was honestly scared to do it all on her own, but Bulma is not the type of woman to show vulnerability to others, let alone to people who work for her. So she just tells her secretary to call her parents and tell them that she just went in labor, and that it would be good if they arrived tomorrow to get her out of the hospital.

Bulma has the urge to drive to the hospital, but that would be unwise, since she was beginning to experience horrendous contractions from time to time. She walks naturally home, with her head spinning faster than ever before, picks up the bag packed with everything needed at the hospital (at least her ahead planning had really paid off), and calls her driver and ties her hair down praying that she won't be recognized. She doesn't need press on her trail right when she's giving birth. Then she calls her obstetrician to let her know that Bulma's on her way to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, she goes to the reception and speaks in her best authoritative voice:

"My name is Bulma Briefs and I am in labor." She says, trying not to squirm from a particularly painful contraction. "I need a room so I can give birth, and also the best midwifery team you have."

Even before she realizes, some nurses put her in a wheelchair and ask a thousand questions. "Is the father here?", "Do you have someone accompanying you?", "Who is your doctor?" It is all so fast that she can barely answer everything.

They take her to a room, and ask her to change and wait until the time of the childbirth actually begins. It seems like Bulma stays there for an eternity, with the contractions becoming more and more violent. She tries to calm herself down, because she was born alone and will die alone, then she should be able to give birth alone as well. Hell, she stayed on a alien planet basically alone for a week, she could do this. In the end she was always alone, anyway.

But it was hard not to feel like the loneliest woman on Earth when she was completely alone in that room for hours, waiting for the moment when her contractions became so frequent and painful that she was going to have to get the baby out of her. How come someone as important as her was going to give birth to a child all alone? It could only be karma, or something like that.

It was almost the time to give birth when finally someone comes to see her. It's only her obstetrician, in this case, but Bulma decides that this is better than nothing.

She screams and curses everything and everyone during the whole labor, and at times she even says things without the slightest sense, but she needs to get this pain out of her somehow.

As time passes and she is unable to push the child out of her, Bulma starts to panic and screams to have a cesarean section. Bulma knows that sometimes it's not possible to give birth naturally, so, afraid of dying from high blood pressure (even if this was just paranoia), she almost kicks one of the nurses in the face and threatens to close the whole fucking hospital if the medical team doesn't do exactly as she says.

The threat works, and it doesn't take long for them to open her up and get her child out. Bulma feels like she just ran a marathon, but damn if her son isn't cute. He's a little red ball and he doesn't stop crying, and luckily he doesn't have a monkey tail, but she decides she likes him.

"His name will be Trunks." She says to the nurse, to put it on his bracelet. Bulma was thinking about naming him Boxa or Trunks if he were a boy, and Bra or Tights if he were a girl. "Please don't mix him up with anyone else's baby."

Bulma is returned to her room, and falls asleep immediately. When she wakes up her whole body is in pain, and her mother is by her side smiling at her, with her son sleeping in an incubator on the other side.

"He's cute." Panchy says, her smile never fading. "And he looks a lot like you."

"Good." Bulma answers.

Bulma leaves the hospital in a wheelchair, with her newborn son on her arms, under a shower of flashes and clicks from photographers, asking if she had married and who her baby's father was. She doesn't know how the press found out that she had given birth, but she wasn't happy at all. When did the press start to go after her, to make her life a bit more miserable? She can't remember. She's just so tired. Giving birth is not easy, she just wants to sleep.

Because of this, she has to make a formal statement to the press to assure investors that everything is under control.

"I've become a mother recently, as everyone could see. My son was born healthy, fortunately. But I am not married, nor in a relationship with my son's father. We've parted ways in friendly terms a few months ago."  _ Friendly terms my ass. _ Bulma thought as he spoke, a week later, in the presence of the specialized press and Capsule Corp shareholders. "I will take six months off from maternity leave, but that definitely doesn't mean that I won't go back to work. You know I couldn't live without it."

Motherhood was being somewhat different than she had imagined it would be. Even though he was a somewhat energetic child, Trunks was less work than she expected, although Bulma was definitely sleeping less than she would have liked, but honestly, she never slept a lot anyways. She also had a lot of people helping her, like her parents and two nannies.

She liked to see her son sleeping, he really was cute (curse the natural selection that made babies so cute), she also tried to play with him to make him laugh with the captivating baby laugh he had. He was big for his age, and very hungry. He was always so hungry that at the age of one month Bulma was already worried if the milk she had would be enough to satiate his hunger for much longer.

On a day when Bulma had finally managed to quell Trunks' hunger with the help of the milk for babies that one of the nannies bought at the pharmacy, in addition to her own milk, and he had fallen asleep, Bulma finds Tights on the living room sofa as soon as Bulma gets out of the kitchen.

"What's up?" Tights greets her, while sitting on the sofa as if she hadn't left the house over 23 years ago, while watching Bulma put her son in a crib that was strategically located in the living room. "Motherhood did you good. Or not. You look a little tired."

"How did you find out? When did you get here?" Bulma asks, sitting next to her sister. Tights had the irritating habit of arriving completely out of nowhere without telling anyone that she was going to make an appearance. She disappeared for so long and so often that Bulma had simply given up on trying to contact her.

"I know everything, and I wanted to see my nephew. I always knew that you were the most likely to have sex with an alien out of everyone I knew." Her sister speaks with a grin in her face, and Bulma turns red. "But seriously, you look good. Even looking like you haven't slept in four days. I actually think the dead look you have going on suits you. It's funny that the last time I saw you you looked the same, like you died and hadn't been buried. How was it with the aliens that came to destroy the planet? I will assume it went well, since the Earth is still here."

"Well…" Bulma tries to speak, not daring to look at her sister. She had forgotten that whole thing.

"Wait a minute." Tights interrupts, and seems to hold herself back from laughing. "That was one of the guys who came here to kill everyone, right? The father of your son."

Bulma feels caught in the act by her own sister, and gets even redder. Was it all that obvious? Probably, because everyone figured everything out without even trying.

"Holy shit Bulma." Tights starts laughing, and keeps laughing for what seems like an eternity. "Sorry, it's just very funny. Anyway, what I mean is that you still look great. Your ability to continue looking like a baby surprises me a lot, you old hag."

"I think it's my big eyes." No fucking way Bulma was going to confess to her sister that she had gotten a little bit of botox injection last year in a wrinkle that was beginning to form. Maybe Bulma didn’t want to get old. Perhaps.

"But how's life? Where is this guy who is your son's father? Mom said he was like,  _ really _ hot." Tights starts asking questions that Bulma was not too eager to answer, and she curses her mother's big mouth. "I even wanted to meet him. Maybe the next time I come home."

"I'm like 90% sure you won't meet him. You literally disappear for years, and until the next time you decide to go back I imagine he'll be gone." Bulma replies, and she really wants to change the subject. "Anyways where have you been these past years?"

"I was going around, visiting places and writing. I'm writing a fantasy series, and there's even a character based on you. Courageous, oblivious and intelligent. The only difference is that everyone's life in my book sucks, and you definitely didn't have a shit life. Or had a shitty life, I'm not sure." The two burst out laughing. "Speaking of visiting places, I heard that the guy you got is a Saiyan, and I have a picture of me in the ruins of their destroyed planet. The place is beautiful, it has space dust that shines, stones that give the place a magic vibe. It is a very famous tourist spot in the galaxy. Too bad it's made of charred people."

"Holy fuck, this is the most morbid thing I remember hearing from you. And since you met Jaco, you are the queen of morbidity." Bulma speaks, incredulous.

"You don't even remember if I was already morbid, you were a snotty brat when I left the house, and I can assure you that I was always morbid. What can I do if the universe is morbid? Anyway, I'll try to remember to bring this photo when I get back here. But seriously, how is the situation between you and your dangerous bae?"

"First, don't call him 'my dangerous bae', it's the most horrible combination of words I've ever had the displeasure of hearing. Second, it is complicated. You know that I never get involved with anything easy."

"I remember the drama that had been with the other, that Yamcha, y'know. You really don't want anything easy at all." Tights comments, but Bulma recalls that Tights never met Yamcha.

"You weren't even here while I dated him, how did you find out?" Bulma asks. Tights always seems like a wizard, knowing everything about everyone without even being there.

"Mom tells me everything." That explanation makes a lot of sense to Bulma, so she just agrees. In fact, the answer is so obvious that Bulma even feels a little stupid for asking.

Bulma loved her sister very much, and her parents love Thighs too. Her sister's bedroom was always organized as if she had never left. Sometimes it was difficult, having the shadow of an older sister that she will never be able to match, because Tights could be anything, anybody's guess. And she's so cool, and wise, and Bulma will never be like her. How do you match someone who is everything you aren't? Despite everything that Bulma is, a second child is always a second child.

When Tights leaves two days later, she can't help but be sad to say goodbye to the older sister she admired so much. When would they see each other again? That was a question that filled her with sadness.

To Tights' likely disappointment, Vegeta resurfaces from the ashes just four days after she left the Briefs mansion. Bulma suddenly wakes up in Trunks' room, where she had fallen asleep in the armchair with her son in her arms, while trying to put him to sleep.

“Why doesn't he have a tail? You didn't cut it out, did you?” Vegeta asks, with Trunks in his arms, while checking the baby's ass. Trunks seemed to be enjoying himself, considering he still hadn't burst into tears. The whole image was very funny, honestly.

“He was born without it, to my luck. Do I look like I would cut my own son's tail?” Bulma asks, in a bad mood, getting up from the chair, carefully analyzing the scene in front of her. “I would hate to explain to the doctors at the hospital why my son has a tail. They would probably think that I was sleeping with a monkey. Which really isn’t far from the truth.”

“I see. He seems strong enough to be considered a Saiyan child, so I suppose he really is my son.” Bulma tries not to roll his eyes when listening to what Vegeta had to say.

“Yeah, like I would bother to lie about it. I mean, really, what would I gain from it?” She speaks, while looking very attentively to Vegeta holding her son. As far as she knew he could throw the child on the floor at any time. The man was very unpredictable. Bulma literally had no idea what was going on in his head. “His name is Trunks, by the way.”

“Why Trunks? It should be Vegeta.” He speaks, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world, and Bulma is just a little confused and slightly irritated.

“Well, how could I know, right?” Bulma states the obvious. Why was Vegeta so fond of giving half answers and hoping she would understand? It was so annoying. “But why would he have the same name as yours?”

“Every first son of the royal family has to be called Vegeta.”

“Hm, interesting.” Bulma speaks, totally uninterested. She really doesn't care much, and even if she knew about that tradition, she would probably just ignore it. It  _ is _ a very tacky tradition.

But Vegeta's return does not indicate that anything would improve between them. In reality things are worse than ever, and Bulma realizes that she is still angry with him, because she is not used to not getting something she wants, and she wanted him. He remains the same brute as before, and it seems that he is a worse mood than usual, and is asking for increasingly impossible things. Bulma was starting to get genuinely irritated, and a part of her was already beginning to figure out how to get him out of her house with as little effort as possible.

He was breaking training equipment so fast that Bulma was starting to think he was doing it on purpose to piss her off. And he made a point of always talking to her.

But he seems to have an interest in Trunks, which is why she doesn't want to send him to the whore who gave birth so soon. Bulma doesn't want her son to grow up without even knowing his father, so she tries to not get mad with every complaint from Vegeta, every fight for nothing, every ridiculous demand.  _ We are just nervous because our time is running out and the androids are going to appear in a few months _ , that was what she was saying to herself, but it didn't get any easier, especially because it seemed on purpose.

Until one day he comes to her laboratory, while she is sitting in front of her computer, editing her papers of the research she and her team did on infinite energy to submit to the biggest scientific journals in the world. 

He starts to complain about durability, that she was not able to follow his training, because he had already broken the new ones that she had given to him that same day, but she isn’t listening, she is fuming. How  _ dare  _ he disturb her while she is doing one of the most important things in her whole life? Then Bulma sees red.

"I won't fix shit." She says, so furious that she became calm and collected. "You can go. I have nothing else to do for you. You’ve surpassed my technology, just as you said."

"You owe it to me." He retorts, angrily, but Bulma doesn't flinch. "I will save your useless life by preventing those androids from destroying the world."

"I owe you nothing. I said I was going to help you train in exchange of getting to study you. The study is over." She saw nothing but red. She looked calm on the outside, but her insides were  _ burning  _ like lava. "The only thing you do is break what I build and proceed to complain about my equipment, when actually you're just trying to blame someone for your mediocrity, because you know you will never catch up to Goku." For a moment he seems stunned from what she said.

"So this is how you treat people who are no longer useful to you, huh?" He says, and he seems as angry as Bulma feels on the inside. "I was right. You're just like Freeza. And twice as cold."

"Don't get me wrong. You've never been of any use to me. I mean, I've went through  _ so much shit _ and I'm still alive. I don't need you to save me. Helping you train wasn't much more than charity service, and I have been  _ very _ patient with you, even though you behave like a fucking child. You’re a grown man, so act like it." Bulma knows she's being way too mean with him, but she wants this fire in her chest to fade away. "The only actual useful things you did to me was giving me a son and warming my bed."

As soon as she says these words, she feels ashamed of herself. That's definitely the harshest words she had ever told to anyone, and not even Vegeta deserved to hear something like that, but she doesn't apologize. Honestly, she doesn’t really mean much of what she said, but she is so angry. He looks at her angrily, and seemed so genuinely offended for the first time in an argument between the two, but says nothing. However, she has more to say.

"You can stay at my apartment until the day you fight the androids. I will also give you money to buy food, and the battle suits I built for you." Bulma speaks, as she starts looking for the key to her apartment that she never uses and the capsule with the battle suits she had built. She stacks things in his hand, while pushing him out of her laboratory. "Here is also a capsule for a spaceship, use it for whatever you want. When the fight is over you can come here for me to configure and review the spaceship so you can get where you want. I'm being really nice, so you can thank me."

"So this is what you do when you get tired of someone. You throw them away, just like you did with your other male." He accuses her, and Bulma doesn't really understand what he means, but whatever. She's tired of  _ him _ accusing her of being cold and opportunistic, of all people. "For someone who proclaims to be good, your words really aren't. You really are more like Freeza than anyone I've ever met."

"I never needed your help, I survived in the fucking future that you and everyone else died. Trunks and I don't need you, and I have no interest in anything you can do for me. I have no interest in anything you have to say, your presence displeases me, and don't come back to my house, unless there is an occasion that I allow you to come back here." He seems so pissed when she says that. A part of her doesn't really mean  _ everything _ she said, but she feels so angry and frustrated at him. And when Vegeta doesn't move, she continues speaking. "If I am so much like Freeza, then you should be afraid of me. So obey me as if I were Freeza."

And then he turns away to leave. It's surprising that he doesn't want to have the last word.

"I wish I knew you before they convinced you life is war." Bulma tells him, before he leaves. "Perhaps we would have gotten along better."

Then she closes the laboratory door and locks it, because she doesn't want to see him. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

But it doesn't matter anymore. Did it ever matter? Probably not. Bulma is sad to have to part ways with him like that. She liked him. She still likes him. But Vegeta doesn't want her the way she wants him, so leaving is for the best. Before she goes crazy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bulma can be REALLY mean and petty, when she is kind of hurt and very pissed
> 
> sometimes i think ya'll forget that bulma can be very nasty, because i often see her being written as someone very passive and/or that would let vegeta do what he pleases to her, but this isn't AT ALL the character that i think we were presented. she doesn't really wait for anybody, and even though she can be patient, i don't think she would let herself be used by somebody else.


	16. sleepless nights and lonely eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo.... it's been a while right? i've been writing this silly dragon ball fantasy!au and it's like 30k words in the first 5 chapters..... and the first act is not even finished kkkkkkkkkkk
> 
> so i've been occupied doing nothing in this quarantine and only now i felt like posting this chapter.
> 
> anyways i hope you guys keep enjoying this fic! thank you very much for the positive comments

The confront with the Androids had come and gone, and it was a total fiasco. What should have been a reasonably simple victory ended up with Goku having a heart attack, Vegeta with two broken arms, Yamcha with a hole in his chest and a few other emotional traumas.

Even after all this, the threat the Androids posed really paled in comparison when a being called Cell arrived. Created to be perfect, it had killed so many people that Vegeta was probably dying of jealousy. And after absorbing Android 17 and 18, he had reached perfection. Bulma didn't express it, but she was furious with Vegeta for letting Cell get to his perfect form, and with Krillin for not blowing up number 18 with the fucking control that Bulma had built in record time, and spent a over whole day without sleeping to build the control.

For better or worse, Cell was more arrogant than Vegeta and loved the thrill of a fight more than Goku, so he had announced the day before that he was going to make a tournament, and everyone in the world is invited to fight him, and if they beat him, he wouldn’t destroy the Earth. Honestly, Bulma kind of doubted that someone like Cell, who had a temper worse than Vegeta would just accept his defeat gracefully, but whatever.

Now the only thing she could was to wait and see, and Bulma doesn't like this feeling very much, but she had already kinda gotten used to seeing the planet's immediate future in the hands of others, although it is horrible every time.

After everyone understood that everything went to shit, Cell is perfect and that the future of humanity is in the hands of the Saiyans (even though the older Trunks and Vegeta were beaten up in a weird family combo), a horde of people came to her house, to stay there until the Cell games. Bulma the hostess is back at her game, she supposes.

Bulma knew that she was lucky to live in a mansion with a plethora of empty rooms, so she was assigning rooms for everyone on the ground floor.

"Well, this is Yamcha's room." She says that night, showing the room that had been his many years ago, and giving him the key. "There's nothing here, by the way. I burned everything related to you when we broke up the last time."

"Bulma, what the fuck?" Yamcha retorts, honestly surprised.

They look at each other for two seconds, she with a raised eyebrow and Yamcha with an expression of confusion, and they burst out laughing with a hint of shame. Bulma can see Tien Shinhan and Krillin looking at each other with a funny face, Vegeta looking like he wants to lock himself in his room and not see anyone else until the Cell games, and Trunks from the future with wide eyes, clearly taken aback by the fact.

"Even the bunny costume?" Yamcha asks mocking her, and she laughs, while slapping him lightly. Bulma blushes slightly and thanks the heavens that no one there besides her, Yamcha and Puar are aware of what this costume is.

"Now seriously, Vegeta's room is next. You still have everything there." Bulma speaks, trying to be serious. She gives the room key to him, who immediately grabs the key and starts to open the door.

"Finally." Vegeta speaks, and Bulma rolls her eyes, and he enters the room without saying anything else.

"How come you didn't burn his stuff too?" Yamcha asks laughing, as he enters his own room.

"Only you had that privilege. And Vegeta has literally three pairs of clothes, two armors and three shorts to train. It wouldn't be fun to burn, he's just too…. Minimalist." She means ‘boring’, but she chooses not to say it out loud. Bulma smiles, and then turns to the other four guests. "I don't have your clothes here, but there are enough things in the guest rooms for you to survive this week. Ah, and there are some clothes from Capsule Corp merchandise, if you need it."

She keeps going through the rooms and assigning one to each, until only her and the older Trunks are left. She had been taken aback to discover that the boy from the future was her son from an alternative timeline, but in retrospect it made sense. Or as much sense as the fact that she had a child in another dimension could make. Now she knew why she found him so familiar, after all, he looked like the face she saw every day in the mirror. He had her same straight, light colored hair, eye color and smile. If it weren't for the stern look he had, there wouldn't be much left to say that he was also Vegeta's son. That and the fact that he could transform into a Super Saiyan.

"Come with me. Your room is upstairs, with the rest of your family." Bulma takes his arm, while smiling. He is her child, whether he is from this dimension or not, and liking him comes naturally.

"Can you cut my hair?" Trunks asks, showing the hair that had literally grown overnight, at least for Bulma.

“Of course. I won't promise it will look good, but I’ll try.” She comments, as she guides him up the stairs that lead to the second floor. In reality, she doesn't even need to guide him, because he already knows the house. They enter the first wing of the main rooms, which has the most classic furniture and is full of excesses, and pass through the first room on the left, which belongs to her parents, and a second room. Then they enter the second wing, with more minimalist furniture and a few stacks of books, and move on to the third bedroom. “This is your room. Actually, it is Tights’ room, but since the other rooms in this floor are already occupied or cannot be used as bedrooms at the moment.”

“Auntie Tights?” He asks, looking surprised. “I never met her. You have told me about her several times, but since the Androids, you have never been able to contact her again.” Bulma understands what this means between the lines. Probably in the future Tights is also dead, or else she would have made contact again. She always came back.

Mother and son enter the room, and Bulma opens the windows. The room was all tidy, since Bulma's parents insist that the room must be cleaned and the sheets changed every month. Tights never comes home, and Bulma has always thought it was a waste of time and resources to clean up her room, but now it really came in handy.

"I always liked this photo a lot." Trunks comments, pointing at one of the two photos that adorn the practically empty desk in the room. A sixteen-year-old Bulma was arm in arm with her older sister, and they are both smiling at the camera. It had been forever since this photo had been taken, and she can't help but smile at the memory.

"I'll get a pair of scissors and a hair clipper to cut your hair. Take a chair and go to the bathroom." Bulma takes the materials, and when Trunks sits in front of the bathroom mirror, she starts to cut his hair. "How was it to spend a year locked up with Vegeta? I’m guessing you didn’t fight up in there, since the fight was out here."

"It was... normal? The only thing he does is yell at you and complain. Other than that, I just avoided having any kind of contact with him. He was  _ pissed _ after everything that happened. I'm not sure  _ why _ he was so pissed, but he definitely was." Trunks speaks, and Bulma starts to laugh. Typical of Vegeta, honestly. "And it was also the most amount of time I spent with a person without hearing any kind of positive comment in my life. It was really impressive. Honestly, I am more pissed off that maybe we're all going to die because he wanted a more exciting fight."

"And because Krillin didn't blow the fucking Android because he really wanted to have sex with her. If he wanted to get it on with her so badly, he could just resurrect her with the dragon balls afterwards." Bulma can't stop complaining. Krillin seemed to have a taste for difficult women, and this time it had gone bad on a global scale.

"Huh, but aren't we out of dragon balls? Like, Piccolo fused with Kami, and now we don't have them anymore." Trunks says.

"Wait, really? We really are fucked, huh." Bulma says, kind of confused. How did things get so bad? "Anyways, speaking of the Androids, did you know that the two who destroyed your dimension are not even Androids?"

"Wait, what? They said they were Androids. Everybody knows it."

"Actually, they really aren't. It's just Dr. Gero who is lazy with names. I saw on their files, they are cyborgs. Apparently they were twin brothers, and they were kidnapped over a decade ago, when they were still teenagers." Bulma commented. Honestly, the aberrations that Doctor Gero created gave her chills. What he had done was the most unethical and abhorrent thing Bulma had ever seen a scientist do. "Which makes it even worse. They were tortured to get to the level they are, I'm sure. They have been modified at the cellular level. Cell is as horrible as the twins, and I have no idea what his weakness is, as a scientist. He really is a monster."

Trunks looked genuinely scared, and she couldn't blame him for that. He had spent his entire life fighting the technological aberrations that Doctor Gero had created, and he certainly didn't need to hear anymore about it from her.

"I'm sorry." Bulma says, genuinely. "I didn't mean to put even more things on your head. You are strong, but you are only a teenager, with the weight of the world in your shoulders. I just want you to know that I love you."

Bulma doesn't know why, but she is absolutely sure that she loves him. She hardly knew him, but to her it was as if he were an old acquaintance, a person she had long loved and forgotten, who was now back in her life, and it was as if he was never not there.

But her son starts to cry, much to her surprise, and Bulma doesn't hesitate to hug him.

"You can go away, back to your future, if you want to, you know. I'm sure you are already strong enough to do what you need to do in your timeline." Bulma speaks, trying to comfort him. "You shouldn't risk your life for us. You've done a lot for us already."

"Why would I go back?" Trunks asks.  _ Because you are the hope of that future _ , Bulma thinks. "I have a lot to help and learn here."

At that moment, Bulma sees herself in Trunks. She said something like that a few years ago. Honestly, this boy in front of her is too good to be true.

XxxxX

The next day, the sun shines in the pool, where Bulma and her guests are, and she adjusts her sunglasses and takes another sip of her beer, while spinning her little son around who is using an inflatable buoy and who seems to enjoy this game.

"Should you be drinking beer while you are breastfeeding?" Yamcha asks, taking a sip of his own beer.

"Not really, but the world will end and I don't want to spend 100% of my time sober." She speaks, while seeing Krillin taking a beer out of the bucket full of ice and beers, that is floating in the pool with the help of an inflatable buoy.

Bulma was in the pool at his house along with Yamcha, Krillin, Trunks (both the baby and the future one), Chaos and Gohan, and Tien was sitting in a table beside the pool. Gohan had only arrived earlier that day, saying that Chi-Chi had told him to have fun with them (Bulma is 90% sure that Chi-Chi just wanted to empty the house so he could have sex with Goku without interruption, but she says nothing. Honestly Chi-Chi made the difficult lady style, but Bulma does not blame her, especially having a brainless husband like Goku (she really deserves a break).

While everyone laughed and talked, catching up on everything, Bulma goes to get the tray of food her mother is offering her, and Bulma passes the tray on to her guests, only to see baby Trunks clinging to the floating beer bucket on the water, and Bulma can already see the disaster of the tipping the ice bucket over his little body.

"Oh my god, you can't do that my baby!" She exclaims, rushing to get him away from the bucket. But the baby is very strong, and he doesn't seem to want to let go of the bucket at all, and it doesn't take long for Bulma to be doing some kind of arm wrestling for Trunks to drop the bucket. "Let it go, you little bastard."

Everyone laughs at her words, and she laughs a little as she continues her arduous mission to free the baby from a toy that he liked very much.

"Did you just call your own son a bastard?" Tien Shinhan asks, smiling ironically, while Bulma takes her little boy to her arms to make him let go of the bucket by force, and she finally succeeds.

"She always did that." Says the future Trunks, still laughing at what she said, and with an expression of affection. "It's almost like an affectionate nickname."

But the mild climate is short-lived, when Vegeta appears in the pool area looking as if he wants to strangle everyone with just the strength of his mind.

"What are you all doing?" He asks, and everyone in the pool looks at each other.

"Enjoying the pool? I mean, the day is very nice." Yamcha says, not sure what else to say.

"Don't you all have anything else to do? Cell games are in less than a week and you are in the pool drinking and eating?" Vegeta almost screams, and Bulma really wants to laugh at his outburst.

"Dude, at this point either you Saiyans defeat Cell or nobody defeats him." Krillin replies, drinking beer calmly. "I gave this guy a Kienzan and he didn't get a scratch. I don't think if I trained two more days or two more years it would make a difference to this level of power."

Tien Shinhan and Yamcha agree, but the answer does not seem to convince Vegeta.

"Then why are there TWO SAIYANS IN THE POOL?" Vegeta screams, and everyone looks at each other, and Bulma is ready to tell him to shut up when Gohan speaks.

"My training is over, and my father asked only to maintain the Super Saiyan form during this week." The boy talks, and holy shit Bulma just wants Vegeta to go away and not bother anyone anymore.

"I'll train later, and I'm still going to the chamber of time this week. Two hours in the pool won't make a difference. Not to mention that it wasn't me who let Cell get to his perfect form." The older Trunks retorts, and Vegeta just seems to be even angrier.

"What the hell." Bulma mumbles. "The gravity chamber is working, if you stop giving me a headache from screaming to everyone I will activate it for you."

Vegeta just looks at her with a raised eyebrow, and she sees that Baby Trunks was getting cold in the pool and it was time for them to leave. Bulma leaves the pool with her son on her arms, and will soon wrap him up with his baby washcloth.

"There's no point in looking at me this way, I won't do anything faster." She says to Vegeta, while putting on the bathrobe. Bulma finds the mother in the kitchen and places her son in her mother's arms. "Mom, can you bathe Trunks while I set up the Gravity Chamber?"

Bulma walks over to Vegeta, and places a towel on his arms.

"Go help my mom or something. I don't want you with me in the gravity room." She speaks, passing by him.

"Me? I'm going to train, you don't expect me to waste my time doing this. Your mom can do this without me. I want you to make more appropriate changes." Vegeta answers, but Bulma doesn't even want to know.

"Big talk from someone who doesn't even know how to cook." She retorts.

"You also don't know how to cook. At least I would survive without other people cooking for me, you would starve to death because you would keep burning everything." He talks back.

"Haha, very funny. You will be out here doing something useful like not annoying me or else I won’t set up the gravity room. Take it or leave it." She was in a mocking mood that day, and what she wanted was for him to fuck himself. He had already fucked the entire planet by letting Cell get perfect, it was time for him to get fucked a little too.

After entering the numbers and codes inside the room, she lets him enter the gravity chamber, alone to do whatever he wants there, and prays that she won't have to bump into him in the halls of her mansion until the end of this week.

  
  


The prayers work, in large part, because in the days that follow until Vegeta returns to the Time Chamber, Bulma barely sees him. Meanwhile, she is very busy trying to restore Android 16, taking care of her son's two versions and chatting with her guests, especially Yamcha.

For the past few days, after leaving the lab, she would sit with him on the porch of her mansion, watching the night sky and talking nonsense until the time Trunks wakes up crying in the middle of the night, while Yamcha is drinking.

"I am dating." Yamcha speaks, out of nowhere with whiskey in hand.

"What? Who are you dating? Please tell me it's Tien." She says everything so fast that Yamcha couldn't say a thing.

"Why Tien?" Yamcha aks, looking puzzled.

"I always thought you two had great chemistry together." Bulma answers. "If you two aren't dating please tell me you two are banging. Or banged in the past."

"Oh my god Bulma!" He starts to blush. "I am  _ not _ dating Tien, sorry to disappoint." He says ironically. "I'm seeing someone else."

"Hn, I thought you gave up on this mundane monogamy thing." Bulma says, laughing.

"You made me change my mind. Human contact is not so bad, after all."

"How long 'till you cheat on this one?" She scoffs and the two laugh.

"I'm already cheating." Yamcha says and Bulma makes an ‘o’ with her mouth. That was fast. "Just kidding. Seriously, our problem was that neither of us wanted to date anymore and nobody had the courage to break up. Or do you think I don't know that you cheated on me with Vegeta?"

"How?" Bulma asks, caught off guard. How could he possibly know that?

"I didn't know, you just confirmed it. You said you would never do that to me." He talks laughing and a little sad, and Bulma doesn't know what to say, because he seemed so calm with the fact that it's as if at that point he had already accepted it some time ago, but she could hear a touch of bitterness in his voice. She also felt guilty about lying to him at the time, because she had lashed all her guilt and anger out at him to feel better. "How are you two?"

"Worse than ever. I kicked him out of the house and he doesn't care whether I die or not, so I think at this point anyone with a half-functioning brain would realize that any chance of us being together is nonexistent now."

"Well, that sucks." Yamcha says, and they stay in this comfortable silence for a while. "I know you like him."

"I don't." She retorts.

"I know you do." Yamcha says. "I  _ know _ you."

"If you ever tell that to anyone I will fucking murder you in your sleep." Bulma whispers to him. "I mean, he is surprisingly considerate to me. But not with you guys, for sure."

"I'm pretty sure he hates me." Yamcha says, and he looks a bit weird.

"Don't be whiny, he hates all of you." She says, laughing, but Yamcha isn't laughing. "Are you okay?" She asks him, more seriously.

"I'm alright, I just think I had a few too many drinks." He answers. "Anyways, I'm pretty sure he hates me  _ more _ than he hates everyone else."

Bulma is about to reply, but then he looks kind of weird, bends over and pukes in her boots.

"Holy  _ fuck _ YAMCHA!" She screams and tries really hard not to vomit in his face. This isn't happening.

"I'm sorry I think I drank too much."

"No shit." She replies, and gets up in her feet to try to remove her boots as quickly as possible.

But then he throws up again, and she slips in the vomit and falls on the floor, and now her clothes are full of vomit. Her body is full of vomit. Her hair.

And then she throws up too, unable to hold it back.

"FUCKKK" Bulma screams.

10 minutes later she is sitting inside the bathroom stall of one of the house's many bathrooms, soaked and only in underwear, while Yamcha vomits in the toilet like he will never stop. She undressed before entering the bathroom, and just turned on the water like her life depended on it.

While undressing and running to the bathroom she somehow dragged Yamcha along with her. She's pretty sure he puked along the way, but whatever.

Her mom appears, and Bulma just asks her mom to get someone to clean up the mess she and Yamcha made.

She gets up, puts a bathrobe on and tries to hold Yamcha's hair so he doesn't make a even bigger mess. And to ensure he's not going to die asphyxiated in his own vomit. That would be bad.

"Take it easy, you are vomiting as if you were sixteen and had never been drunk in your life." Bulma speaks, trying not to laugh, but failing miserably. "It reminds me of that time when I passed out in the gutter after I had too many drinks, and you had to carry me to the hospital to take IV."

He laughs, but when he does, he just vomits more.

"Holy shit huh." And she laughs some more.

  
  


The next day Bulma goes to the lab exhausted, after spending more time taking care of Yamcha than she should've. With a cup of coffee in hand, she begins to look at the progress that has been made in recovering Android's 16 memory, which for some reason was severely corrupted, even before he had any physical damage, it seemed.

But in reality the biggest problem was how she would disarm and extract the bomb that was in the Android's chest without the bomb going off in the process, or else the West City would turn into ash in the explosion of the hydrogen bomb inside the Android. It would normally be a bad idea to leave something so dangerous so close to that many people, but their laboratory was basically the only place that had enough resources to defuse a bomb of this magnitude without anything going wrong.

Bulma and her father had isolated the area so there was no risk of anyone doing something they shouldn't, and they would defuse the bomb that afternoon. She was busy reviewing the stability of a hydrogen bomb when someone enters the laboratory. Bulma was about to ask her father to see again the plan of the Android's operation when she realizes that Vegeta os the one that came in, not her father.

"What are you doing here? This is a restricted area until tomorrow." She hisses, but she can't help being surprised to see him there. If he had already left the Chamber of Time, it means that Trunks should be going there now.

"Trunks is already training in the Chamber of Time, if that's what you're asking. I came back yesterday evening." He comments, and she just nods. The Cell Games are in just over two days, and it's amazing how quickly that week had gone by. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to increase the odds of us staying alive." She answers, while Vegeta looks at the android's body without much interest. "Don't go near him."

"I broke the gravity chamber." He approaches her, and she spins her chair to face him. And then she laughs.

“Ha! That’s a good one. I didn’t think you had a sense of humor.” She says.

“No, the gravity chamber really is broken. And I don’t have a sense of humor.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Bulma says, trying really hard not to be angry. She never wanted to punch somebody in the face so badly.

They stare at each other for a few seconds, and anger, annoyance and frustration boil in her chest. And then Bulma explodes.

"I told you not to use this shit with your full strength, otherwise it  _ will _ break." She exclaims, getting up from the chair in which she is sitting. "Now I don't have time to fix this. I don't have time tomorrow, and I'm certainly not going to fix anything the day after tomorrow. Seriously, my life doesn't revolve around fixing things, for god's sake. That was a favour, not my job."

Standing up, Bulma is closer to him than she would like, and while they spend a few good seconds staring at each other, a traitorous part of her brain ponders how easy it would be to kiss him. But she won't, because she is better than that. The sexual tension between them is palpable, and she looks at his shirtless torso (why is he shirtless? To train? She really doesn’t get it), the scars covering his muscles, wanting to be closer to him.

And that's exactly what Vegeta does, when he caresses her arm lightly, and kisses her.

Initially she is surprised by his attitude, and then she kisses him back. For half a second she pretends that he loves her, because he kisses her as if there is no one else in the world for him. Then she walks away. Bulma looks at him, rather sadly, and takes a deep breath. She thought she knew what he wanted with her, but now she was just confused. If what Bulma thought had happened between her and Vegeta had only existed in her head, then why was he kissing her? Why was he messing with her head? Why is he the only one that doesn't know her heart?

She kind of wanted to tell him she liked him, and maybe getting together isn’t a bad idea. But staying with her just because of one simple “I like you” is not something she wants. There’s must to be more. The idea that he would stay with her just because he pitied her was unbearable. If Vegeta wanted something else with her, he would want it because it is his choice, not because of pity or boredom.

But she was certain of one thing: she would never repeat the mistake she had made with Yamcha. No more backs and forths in her life. She might be a slow learner in the relationship department but she  _ learns _ .

"I don't want to do that. Not with you. With Yamcha it was enough." She speaks, seriously, while Vegeta crosses his arms (and is it her impression or did he smell her?) and avoids looking at her, makes a displeased face and takes a step back, at a safe distance from her. She really wasn't going to be going back and forth with Vegeta. Not after she had her heart broken and put back together by Yamcha so many times. She knows the result, and she's not going to do everything wrong again. She wanted more with Vegeta, and if that wasn't possible, she would rather have nothing. "I don't understand you. A month ago you were going to let me and our son die and now you kiss me?"

"First off, you were not going to die. Probably. The other idiot escaped with virtually no damage, and I've seen you survive an explosion worse than this. Besides, everyone there would never miss a chance to play the hero and save the damsel in distress."

"I almost died in that explosion. I was hospitalized for a while." Bulma speaks, incredulous. "And Trunks is a baby."

"A  _ Saiyan _ baby." He answers, as if it makes total difference, and he doesn't really seem to realize what made her furious. "I wasn't the one who brought my son to see the enemy. You are the one who has more courage than sense, not me."

A part of Bulma wants to answer and say that, unlike him, she certainly has courage to spare. But he's right, and she doesn't want to admit it, so she just keeps it quiet. It had been stupid of her to take a baby to the battlefield. She knew she was a difficult woman, but risking her son's life like that is ridiculous, even for her.

"Besides, you said yourself that you two would never need my help." Vegeta complete, and the pieces fall into place to Bulma.

"You piece of shit…" Bulma mutters, incredulous. "You didn't do anything because of what I said? You would rather see your son and I die than let go of your pride."

"You weren't going to die." He answers, but doesn't try to deny anything. Bulma knows that he will not fight to stay with her, but that is another level.

"Get out of here.  _ Now _ ." Bulma exclaims, pushing him out of the laboratory. She feels totally lost. Who is Vegeta? The man who kisses her as if she is the only thing that matters in the world, or the petty man he becomes when upset? She didn't even know what to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the chapter. i have a very specific view of my characters (like i don't think bulma is the kind of person who would beg for anyone to stay with her, or try to convince someone who doesn't want anything with her to stay with her. she has quite a personality and i think she's almost as proud and unwilling to be a passive person as vegeta lol) and maybe you guys disagree with my interpretation.
> 
> anyways, if you have any criticism, positive and negative, i'm willing to hear!


End file.
